Brussels, 01/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised plans by the Danish group AP Møller-Maersk A/S to acquire the shipping company Royal P. & O. Nedlloyd (PONL). The operation, in which Maersk has made an offer of 57 EUR per PONL share, will give rise to the largest shipping company in the world, made up of over 800 container vessels and with a consolidated turnover of 28 billion EUR. Further to its investigations, the Commission noted that the parties' activities overlap mainly in the field of container transport and, to a lesser extent, in that of terminal services. It has therefore obliged PONL to cease its activities on traffic between Europe and South Africa and to withdraw from several maritime conferences and consortiums. "When the number one carrier reinforces its market position by buying its third largest competitor, we must ensure that shippers and end-consumers do not lose out", explained Commissioner Charlie McCreevy in a press release, adding: "Following our investigation and the remedies offered we are satisfied this would not be the case". Due to a possible conflict of interests, the Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, who is a former member of the board of PONL, did not handle this dossier, which was handed over to the Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market.
Maritime conferences, which are made up of companies operating regular services on various lines, have long been exempt from the competition rules, but the Commission is planning to put an end to this (see EUROPE 8935). Consortiums of shipping companies have had their exemption extended, on the other hand (see the aforementioned copy of EUROPE), and are therefore not subject to rules concerning restrictive commercial practices (article 81 of the treaty), for all agreements (except those relating to price setting) with an objective of the joint operation of maritime transport services. In areas in which the operation would lead to accumulation of market share which may harm competition, the Commission made its approval conditional upon the withdrawal of PONL from the conferences and consortiums in question, in order to cut its ties with its competitors, a press release indicates. In the same way, the analysis of traffic between Europe and southern Africa, particularly by refrigerated container vessel, showed that the parties would hold over 50% of the market share and offered to get rid of PONL's activities on this trade route.