COSCO Takes Majority Stake in OOCL

China’s COSCO Shipping Holdings has taken the helm at Orient Overseas Container Lines (OOCL) as it completed the acquisition of the company’s majority stake.

OOCL’s parent company, Orient Overseas International (OOIL), informed that the COSCO Shipping and SIPG finalized the acquisition of more than 50% of the issued share capital of OOCL.

As of July 24, COSCO Shipping is an indirect controlling shareholder of OOCL.

COSCO Shipping overcame the final hurdle for its proposed USD 6.3 billion takeover of OOCL in late June when it received an approval for the deal from the Chinese anti-trust body.

The company earlier informed that, once the transaction is completed, COSCO would hold 90.1% of OOIL, thus becoming the world’s third-largest container carrier.

COSCO would have a combined fleet of 400 vessels, with capacity exceeding 2.9 million TEUs including orderbook, according to Drewry’s estimate.

World Maritime News Staff