HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - The Budget Committee of the Hamburg Parliament will discuss the controversial acquisition of the world's largest shipping company MSC by the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA on Tuesday (5 p.m.). After the Committee for Public Enterprises and the Economic Committee have already approved the plan of the red-green Senate with the votes of the governing coalition, it can be assumed that this committee will also give the green light. If this is the case, the Bürgerschaft could approve the deal before the summer break.

The Senate wants to bring the Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) on board at Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) in order to stabilize container handling. The city and the company, which is owned by the Italian shipping family Aponte, are to run HHLA as a joint venture in future, with the city holding a majority stake of 50.1 percent. To date, the city has owned around 70 percent of HHLA, which is listed on the stock exchange.

In return, the world's largest shipping company MSC wants to build its German headquarters in Hamburg, increase the volume of cargo in the port from 2025 and, according to the press release, increase it to one million standard containers (TEU) per year by 2031. MSC and the city also want to increase HHLA's equity by 450 million euros. The port has recently suffered setbacks. Last year, the handling of seaborne cargo fell by 4.7 percent compared to 2022 to 114.3 million tons - the lowest figure since 2009.

There have been fierce protests against the business - from works councils, the trade union Verdi and numerous HHLA employees. In order to emphasize this once again, they want to hand over a letter to the chairman of the budget committee, Mathias Petersen (SPD), at a rally in front of the town hall on Tuesday (4.15 pm). Previously, experts had also raised concerns in two expert hearings./klm/DP/ngu