Cosco Shipping has announced more details of its recent offer to take over Hong Kong’s OOIL, the parent of OOCL, in a response to the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE)’s inquiry.
SSE sent an inquiry letter to Cosco last week requesting further information on the takeover.
Cosco said the deal still needs to be reviewed by a number of overseas anti-monopoly authorities and currently the company is collecting information according to the requirements of these authorities to ensure that the deal is approved around the world.
In order to create maximum operating efficiency and synergies after the takeover of OOIL, Cosco plans to optimise operations in various areas including shipping network, fleet structure, container management, supplier network and information systems.
Through the fleet and shipping network optimisation, Cosco expects to lower the fleet operation costs by returning extra chartered capacity and phasing out uncompetitive capacity.
In response to SSE’s concern over OOIL’s listing status on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE), Cosco said it will maintain OOIL’s listing on the stock exchange and will take necessary measures to ensure the public shareholding ratio of OOIL meets the requirement of HKSE after the completion of the deal.
Cosco resumed stock trading on SSE today after it called a trading halt on May 17 with its share price leaping in double digit territory.
