Hapag-Lloyd, the fifth biggest container shipping company by vessel capacity, has announced that it successfully completed the capital increase with subscription rights agreed upon on September 28, 2017.
The capital increase was agreed after Hapag-Lloyd's merger with United Arab Shipping (UASC) with most of its shareholders exercising their rights to buy up 11.7 million new shares.
By partially utilizing the authorized capital, the gross issue proceeds amount to approximately EUR 352 million (approx. US$ 414 million).
Hapag-Lloyd said that 96.5% of the existing shareholders exercised their subscription rights.
A subscription price of EUR 30.00 each was placed on a total of 11,717,353 new no-par value shares.
As a result, the Hapag-Lloyd 's share capital will be increased to EUR 175,760,293.00.
The new shares will carry full dividend rights as of 1 January 2018.
Lars Jensen, CEO, SeaIntelligence, recently forecasted the industry’s developments as far into the future as 2025 in his 'Liner Shipping in 2025' technical paper
Hapag-Lloyd stated that the registration of the capital increase with the commercial register of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Hamburg is expected to take place on 17 October 2017, the new shares are then expected to be included in the existing quotation on the Frankfurt and Hamburg Stock Exchanges on October 20, 2017.
Hapag-Lloyd will use the proceeds primarily for the repayment of debts as well as for general corporate purposes.
The capital increase was backstopped in full by Hapag-Lloyd’s main shareholders CSAV Germany Container Holding GmbH, Kuehne Maritime GmbH, Qatar Holding Germany GmbH and The Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The main shareholders have committed to purchase any new shares that have not been subscribed for in the subscription offer at the subscription price.
Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, said: “We are pleased about the high level of demand for our shares.
“We would like to thank all our shareholders for their confidence. We see this as an encouragement to continue to rigorously pursue our strategic and operative objectives.”
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