• 3 min de lectura
• 3 min de lectura
The National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) of Chile has instructed an investigation into the acquisition of the Israeli company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services by the German company Hapag-Lloyd, in which the Chilean Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) - belonging to the Quiñenco business group - holds 30% of the shares.
According to the resolution issued by the regulatory body, the notification presented by the participants in the purchase procedure would indicate a concentration operation contemplated in article 47, letter B, of decree law 211.
The legal section states that "a concentration operation shall be understood as any act, deed or agreement, or set thereof, which has the effect that two or more economic agents that do not form part of the same business group and that were previously independent of each other, cease their independence in any area of their activities (...) acquiring, one or more of them, directly or indirectly, rights that allow them, individually or jointly, to decisively influence the administration of another."
In this context, the initiation of the investigation responds to what is dictated by article 50, third paragraph, of the aforementioned decree law, indicating that "in the case of a complete notification, the national economic prosecutor will order the initiation of the investigation and communicate the resolution to the notifier."
It should be remembered that Hapag-Lloyd has a port operating arm, Hanseatic Global Terminals (HGT), whose presence in Chile includes Iquique Terminal Internacional (ITI), Antofagasta Terminal Internacional (ATI), San Antonio Terminal Internacional (STI), San Vicente Terminal Internacional (SVTI), and Portuaria Corral.
At the beginning of 2026, the German shipping company announced the signing of an agreement with ZIM Integrated Shipping Services to acquire 100% of its shares, in a transaction whose total value was estimated at more than USD 4 billion.
However, the proposal quickly raised questions and concerns in Israel, which focused on security risks. Amidst this disagreement over the sale of ZIM, PortalPortuario communicated exclusively with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, who assured that this transaction would be against their strategic safeguards.
As a result of the doubts, it was recently announced that Hapag-Lloyd was working with the Government of Israel to adjust its purchase offer and develop an improved proposal that would strengthen Israeli maritime independence. The agreement would establish ZIM as a container shipping company under full Israeli control, owned by the Israeli private equity fund FIMI.
