Hengeler Mueller advises Hapag-Lloyd on increase of ABS programme

23. February 2018

Hapag-Lloyd AG has increased its existing USD 350 million shipping container freight receivables asset-backed securities programme to USD 500 million. The increase was primarily a result of integrating the freight receivables of the Arab container liner shipping company United Arab Shipping Company, merged with Hapag-Lloyd in May 2017.

With a fleet of 219 container ships and 7.6 million TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) per year, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's leading global liner shipping companies. The Company has around 13,000 employees and over 436 offices in 126 countries. 

Hengeler Mueller advised Hapag-Lloyd on the increase of its ABS programme. The Hengeler Mueller team was led by partner Stefan Krauss and included counsel Andreas Lischka and associate Till Hiemenz-Müller (all Capital Markets, Frankfurt). Hengeler Mueller advised Hapag-Lloyd as lead counsel together with a team of lawyers from the US, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Poland. Hengeler Mueller had already advised Hapag-Lloyd in 2013 on the extension of its asset-backed securities programme, which was the first securitisation of freight receivables from a European container shipping business as part of a 27-nation transaction.