World’s largest container carrier, Maersk Line A/S, and the Oetker Group have reached an agreement for Maersk Line to acquire the German container shipping line Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft KG (Hamburg Süd).

The acquisition is subject to final agreement and regulatory approvals, Maersk Line said, without revealing any financial details on the deal.

A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S, the parent company of Maersk Line, expects to communicate further details following the approval of the sales and purchase agreement expected early in the second quarter of 2017. The company expects to close the transaction by the end of 2017.

Hamburg Süd is the world’s seventh largest container shipping line and a leader in the North — South trades.

The company operates 130 container vessels with a container capacity of 625,000 TEUs.

Hamburg Süd has 5,960 employees in more than 250 offices across the world and markets its services through the Hamburg Süd, CCNI, based in Chile, and Aliança, based in Brazil, brands.

In 2015, Hamburg Süd had a turnover of USD 6,726 million of which USD 6,261 million stems from its container line activities.

”With this acquisition, Maersk Line follows the strategy announced on 22 September 2016 to grow market share organically and through acquisitions. Acquiring Hamburg Süd will create a unique opportunity for further development of Maersk Line’s business to the benefit of customers, employees as well as shareholders,” Maersk LIne said in a statement.

With the acquisition of Hamburg Süd, Maersk Line will grow its global capacity share to approximately 18.6% (now 15.7%), its nominal capacity to around 3.8 million TEU (now 3.1 million TEU) while decreasing the average age of the combined fleet of more than 700 vessels to 8.7 years compared to Maersk Line’s present vessel age of 9.2 years.