DGA Shipping operates in the inland waterway shipping sector in Belgium and offers inland waterway shipping services right across the country and in the entire ARA region (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp). Its main activities not only include chartering, but shipping using its own and outside cargo space – for example, with push boats and non-motorised barges. The company specialises in providing dry shipping for bulk commodities, general cargo and project loads. It offers transport services to all the ports in the Rhine catchment area, to all the tributaries of the river Rhine and all over Germany through German partner companies. DGA, which has its headquarters in the port of Antwerp, therefore operates a similar business model to Rhenus PartnerShip in Germany. Rhenus held 45 percent of the shares up to the present time; this is now being increased to 100 percent. HGK Shipping GmbH previously had a majority holding in the company.
“We’ve decided to sell our shares in DGA Shipping, as we generally intend to withdraw from shareholdings. We’ll be investing the sales revenue generated by this in the ongoing strategic development of the HGK Shipping Group, and particularly in new business units. We believe that the business is in good hands with Rhenus and we wish the company every success,” says Steffen Bauer, the CEO of HGK Shipping. “Thanks to the 100 percent shareholding, Rhenus PartnerShip is consolidating its position in the market place and we can support our customers in an even more flexible manner. The share acquisition will allow us to maximise our synergies, use resources more efficiently and offer our customers an even broader and better portfolio of services,” says Thomas Maassen, the Managing Director of Rhenus PartnerShip, explaining the development.
A strong competitive position for Rhenus on the river Rhine to Belgium
Rhenus is particularly focusing on Rhine traffic heading to Antwerp in this business development. “We want to expand our services towards Belgium and play a leading role in order to be able to successfully establish our position in the market there,” Thomas Maassen adds. Rhenus is using this change to secure itself a strong competitive position on the river Rhine heading towards Belgium and can make use of the powerful network that DGA has established in the past with Rhenus and HGK. DGA has, among other things, access to both its own transport capacity and a large external fleet. “We’ve greatly expanded the DGA business with HGK during the last few years, particularly in the field of chartering. However, there has been and there still is a great deal of potential that we now want to further develop,” says Thomas Maassen, summarising matters. The redistribution of the shares will not have any effect on the employees or the customers. The DGA team will continue to exist as in the past and current customer projects and partnerships will retain their validity.
Herzog-Adolf-Straße 3
