The shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), through its port management and investment subsidiary Terminal Investment Limited Holding (TiL), and the asset management firm BlackRock have formally withdrawn the application filed with the European Union competition authorities to obtain the corresponding authorization for the purchase of the container terminal operated by the CK Hutchison group at the port of Barcelona, as reported by Reuters. The withdrawal of the application has been registered in the official records of the Community Executive, thus concluding the regulatory assessment that was ongoing for this maritime infrastructure.
The analysis procedure had been initiated last December, when the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission agreed to open an in-depth investigation. The Community Executive justified the measure due to the need to carefully analyze the potential impacts that the concentration operation could have on market conditions in the western Mediterranean port system, considering the hypothesis of a possible increase in applicable rates or a decrease in the levels of operational quality offered by the terminal to the user shipping companies.
The projected transaction contemplated the joint acquisition of control of the terminal by TiL and BlackRock. TiL operates as the branch dedicated to the investment and management of maritime terminals integrated within the Swiss group MSC, one of the largest global corporations dedicated to the maritime transport of goods in container ships. The facility subject to the purchase operation, managed to date by the Hong Kong-based corporation CK Hutchison, constitutes the main deep-water infrastructure for the traffic of goods contained in intermodal containers with origin, destination, or transit in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and its socio-economic sphere of influence in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula.
This terminal in the port of Barcelona also acts as a key logistics center for international commercial flows connecting the south of the European continent with transoceanic routes. The availability of adequate drafts for the operation of the largest container ships places this facility in a decisive position within the organization of global transport chains. For this reason, the Community regulatory analysis focused on determining whether the transfer of ownership in favor of a group that combines the provision of regular line shipping services with the management of commercial docks could distort fairness in access to the infrastructure by other competing shipping companies.
