Following an ultimatum given by the Italian transport minister to solve the dispute between MSC and Contship Italia, the shareholders of Medcenter Container Terminal in Gioia Tauro, an end is now in sight after it was announced that Contship Italia has entered into negotiations with MSC for the sale of its 50% shares in CSM Italia Gate, the company that controls Medcenter Container Terminal.
In order to speed up the deal, Contship is said to have “already appointed the law firm that will assist the process as well as an independent financial advisor, who has been given the task of expressing the correct value of the terminal activity and assets”.
During the negotiations, Medcenter Container Terminal will continue to be fully operational.
Contship Italia Group, which started and has been running the terminal for over 24 years, says it will remain “fully committed to safeguard the employment levels, so as to preserve the value and competitiveness of the largest Italian container terminal”.
Now MSC is set to take the full control of the terminal, it is expected to invest over €120m ($136m) for new equipment and works in order to reach a total annual throughput of 4m teu.
Medcenter Container Terminal last year handled 2.3m teu, a 5.7% drop from the volume recorded in 2017.
