The Rapid Expansion of MSC: Buying Companies, Profits, and Fleet Size

«When will MSC stop buying companies?». The question has been circulating for weeks in financial and legal circles interested on the one hand in understanding how to insert themselves into the shopping of Mediterranean Shipping Company – the Aponte family’s maritime logistics giant – and on the other in identifying the “scheme” adopted by the shipowner Gianluigi and of his children Diego and Alexa to expand the scope of a company that in 2022 earned approximately 66 thousand euros (net) per minute, 35 billion per year. Company – or rather: network of companies – which in addition to cargo and cruise ships, port terminals and containers, also includes private clinics abroad and will soon also manage Italo’s high-speed trains after purchasing an airline for freight transport.

The Alpitour-Neos dossier

And it didn’t end here. If it is true – according to what the same financial sources have been saying for a few days – that MSC is considering an offer to take over the majority of Alpitour. Which is not only a tour operator (perhaps to be added to Cisalpina Tours, already in the “belly” of the maritime giant) and hotels, but also Neos, the Italian carrier specializing in particular in the transport of tourists to holiday resorts and ships from MSC cruise. Alpitour has a valuation that varies between 1.3 and 1.5 billion euros, more or less the money that the Aponte family intends to invest for 49.2% of Italo. The commander has wanted to have a passenger airline for some time. He tried together with Lufthansa to take over Ita Airways, but the then Treasury leaders preferred a weaker consortium – according to analysts – then forcing the current Minister of Economy to save the dossier at the last minute by calling Lufthansa, but receiving the “no » from Msc.

The headquarters

Confidentiality is the first commander at the MSC headquarters, a glass block at number 12 Chemin Rieu, in Geneva. Speed ​​is second. And a three-year period 2020-2022 which has crippled half the world, but has filled the coffers of maritime logistics companies to levels never seen before, also helps a lot. To get an idea: according to calculations by the consultancy firm Drewry, during the pandemic period the sector generated profits higher than those of the previous six decades overall.

– Gianluigi Aponte between his children Diego and Alexa The sector

The top five companies in the world by container transport capacity (MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, Cosco, Hapag-Lloyd) recorded almost $336 billion in revenues and just under $128 billion in net profits in 2022, according to the analysis by the Corriere on the financial statements filtered and those made public (for a better analysis it is better to use the dollar as the reference currency). MSC ended the twelve months with 86.4 billion in revenues, Maersk with 81.5 billion, while CMA CGM with 74.5.

The profits

If you look at profits, MSC stands out with 36.2 billion, the Danish Maersk with 29.7 billion and CMA CGM with around 24.9. It should also be noted that the Aponte family giant – which holds about a fifth of the market in terms of container transport capacity – had 63 billion dollars in cash as of 31 December, more than double that of Maersk (27 billion) and almost five times the liquidity of Hapag-Lloyd (13.4).

The ships

As for the fleet, if we consider only that of container ships, according to the specialized company Alphaliner, as of 30 September 2023, MSC had 785 giants of the seas, Maersk 680, Cma CGM 621, then Cosco 478 and Hapag-Lloyd 262. On the order front, MSC has 121 requests for additional ships, just under the 123 of Cma CGM which is destined to oust Maersk since the Danes have requested “only” 32 for the next few years.

2023-10-04 10:29:11
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