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US antitrust regulators raise no objections to proposed Cosco-OOIL merger
THE proposed merger between liner carriers Cosco Shipping and Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) has passed through another hurdle with US government regulators finding no antitrust violations in the proposal.
The applicable period for US antitrust regulators to dispute or raise concerns with the proposed merger offer have expired, meaning that this precondition of the merger agreement "has been fulfilled," according to a joint statement released on early in the week by the two companies.
China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has reportedly approved the merger in early September, and the last remaining major antitrust regulator to approve the deal would be the European Union, which has yet to announce its assessment, American Shipper reported.
Cosco Shipping and OOIL said they will "continue to work towards satisfaction" of other preconditions and added that "further announcement(s) in relation to the latest status of the offer will be made in due course."
As reported earlier, Cosco Shipping's shareholders approved the US$6.3 billion offer to acquire OOIL, the Hong Kong-based parent of ocean carrier Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL).
With OOCL's fleet, Cosco Shipping Lines, a subsidiary of Cosco Shipping Holdings, would control a containership fleet of more than 400 vessels with capacity of over 2.9 million TEU including orderbook, the companies said.
According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, Cosco and OOCL are currently the fourth and seventh largest container carriers worldwide, respectively, in terms of operating fleet capacity.
Cosco Shipping has said that it hopes to close the deal by the end of the year.
The applicable period for US antitrust regulators to dispute or raise concerns with the proposed merger offer have expired, meaning that this precondition of the merger agreement "has been fulfilled," according to a joint statement released on early in the week by the two companies.
China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has reportedly approved the merger in early September, and the last remaining major antitrust regulator to approve the deal would be the European Union, which has yet to announce its assessment, American Shipper reported.
Cosco Shipping and OOIL said they will "continue to work towards satisfaction" of other preconditions and added that "further announcement(s) in relation to the latest status of the offer will be made in due course."
As reported earlier, Cosco Shipping's shareholders approved the US$6.3 billion offer to acquire OOIL, the Hong Kong-based parent of ocean carrier Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL).
With OOCL's fleet, Cosco Shipping Lines, a subsidiary of Cosco Shipping Holdings, would control a containership fleet of more than 400 vessels with capacity of over 2.9 million TEU including orderbook, the companies said.
According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, Cosco and OOCL are currently the fourth and seventh largest container carriers worldwide, respectively, in terms of operating fleet capacity.
Cosco Shipping has said that it hopes to close the deal by the end of the year.
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