Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has taken a minority stake in Italian container /ro-ro (conro) specialist Ignazio Messina & Co.
The Swiss liner giant signed a deal yesterday through a subsidiary company Marinvest giving it 49% of the Genoa-based company.
It concludes more than two years of talks during which Italian financier Banca Carige sought to restructure around €450m ($506m) of distressed debt.
Messina, which is managed by family members Ignazio Messina, Stefano Messina and Andrea Gais, specialises in conro liner services connecting the Mediterranean with Africa and the Middle East.
It ran into financial trouble after placing orders between 2009 and 2011 for eight 2,900-teu conro newbuildings that were delivered between 2011 and 2015.
The deal is subject to the approval of Italian antitrust and port authorities, the companies said in a statement.
TradeWinds was unable to confirm reports that MSC will make an investment of about €25m ($28m) for its shareholding in the company.
But the deal raises the prospect of Messina’s container volumes being consolidated onto MSC’s full container services, as well as the operation of joint liner services between the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Middle East.
