HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - The Hamburg Parliament is preparing to give its final approval on Wednesday to the controversial deal for the world's largest shipping company MSC to join the port logistics company HHLA. If the red-green coalition gives the green light in the last meeting before the summer break, a contract that will run for at least 40 years can come into force. The opposition could at best delay the final decision until after the summer break by refusing a second reading. But what is the deal actually about? An overview:

Who is HHLA?

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, or HHLA for short, is not just any old cargo handling company. The company, which emerged from Hamburger Freihafen-Lagerhaus-Gesellschaft (HFLG), founded in 1885, is the heart of the Port of Hamburg. Its three container terminals - Tollerort, Altenwerder and Burchardkai - handled around 5.9 million standard containers (TEU) last year, around 77 percent of Hamburg's total throughput. In addition, HHLA and its almost 6800 employees are involved in terminals in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, the Italian port of Trieste and the Estonian port of Muuga.

At least as important to HHLA as the terminals are its companies for the onward transportation of containers by road and rail. For rail transportation, HHLA has its subsidiary Metrans. The port logistics company's involvement in the real estate sector is a curiosity and owes much to its history, including the Speicherstadt UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How is HHLA doing?

The situation is difficult. As an internationally oriented company, the world's crises often hit HHLA directly and hard. Last year, for example, with a turnover of around 1.45 billion euros, a profit of just 20 million euros remained. Container throughput fell by 7.5 percent and container transport by 5.4 percent - confirming a trend that has been more or less sustained since the global financial crisis in 2008, unlike the main competitor ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. In the first quarter of this year, HHLA even slipped into the red.

Added to this are upheavals at the major shipping companies, which, like Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, are joining forces in the "Gemini Cooperation" and, to HHLA's annoyance, want to give priority in future to ports where they themselves own or control terminals - in Germany, for example, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven. HHLA urgently needs money to modernize and automate its terminals.

What can be done?

Hamburg's red-green Senate - the city previously held around 70 percent of the shares, with the remainder in free float - decided to take an unprecedented course of action. In September, it was surprisingly announced that the world's largest shipping company, MSC, would be joining HHLA and would hold 49.9 percent of the company in future. The city will reduce its share to 50.1 percent.

What exactly has been agreed?

In return for just under half of the shares, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) will increase its cargo volume at the HHLA terminals from 2025 onwards and increase it to one million TEU per year by 2031, according to a press release from the city council. It will also build a new German headquarters in Hafencity, into which the cruise division MSC Cruises will also move; the number of employees will more than double with an additional 700 jobs in Hamburg. In addition, MSC and the city want to increase HHLA's equity by 450 million euros. Finance Senator Andreas Dressel (SPD) said that the negotiations for the contract, which will run for at least 40 years, had focused on two points: "We must retain the majority and we must guarantee co-determination." Both had been achieved. "As the city, we still have the right to nominate candidates for the CEO and Supervisory Board chair positions."

What happened after the announcement?

In short: a storm of indignation broke out. Port workers took to the streets several times, venting their anger in angry demonstrations and not even shying away from a wildcat strike. Works councils, the Verdi trade union and even experts warned of a "historic mistake" in expert hearings and in a public hearing of the Hamburg Parliament. Above all, MSC's business practices are under fire. MSC is not exactly known for its commitment to co-determination and has even fired a former head of the works council at a subsidiary in Hamburg.

Where else did the criticism of the MSC deal ignite?

The price. A number of critics are certain that the negotiated price of 16.75 euros per share, or just under 233 million euros for the municipal HHLA shares, is far too low. Former President of the Port of Hamburg Business Association, Gunter Bonz, told the "Hamburger Abendblatt" newspaper: "Congratulations to MSC. The company has done everything right and pulled a fast one on the Senate." HHLA is worth much more, Metrans alone is already worth two billion euros./klm/DP/zb