CP Ships
From Freepedia
CP Ships is a large Anglo-Canadian shipping company.
The company became an an independent corporation in 2001 when it was sold by conglomerate Canadian Pacific Limited (CP) and is incorporated in Saint John, New Brunswick but headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its 82 ships are registered in a number countries including the UK, Bermuda, Liberia, and Germany and most of the crews are Asian. Its primary ports remain Montreal and Vancouver.
Prior to 2001, the company existed as a division of CP Limited. From its very beginning, the Canadian Pacific Railway was also involved in shipping, leasing ships and running some of its own. The first vessels carried tea from Japan to Vancouver to then be shipped east by the railway. Early in the 20th century Canadian Pacific became one of the major shipping companies in the North Atlantic, best known for its Empress line of luxury passenger ships operating primarily between Southampton and Montreal. In both the First and Second World Wars in contributed a large fleet of vessels to the Allied war effort. After the war, however, Canadian Pacific retreated form the shipping industry and at one point only owned a single vessel, until in 1984 when it promoted a partnership between Canada Maritime and Compagnie Maritime Belge to secure North Atlantic container traffic for its rail facilities in Montreal.
This "new" company prospered and the fortunes of CP Ships revived in the early 1990s and in 1993 Canadian Pacific bought out its partner in Canada Maritime, and that company was merged in CP Ships reviving the fleet. The next decade saw the company grow through acquisition. In 1995 CP Ships purchased the Cast Group, and subsequently bought Lykes Lines, Ivaran Lines, TMM Lines, Italia Line. By 2001 it was the seventh largest carrier in the world, and dominated the North Atlantic. When it was spun off into a separate company it represented 25% of Canadian Pacific's revenues and was a source for a large portion of CPR's rail traffic - much originating from CP Ships' Montreal Gateway Terminals.
Soon after gaining its independence the company suffered from a general economic slowdown, however it recovered much faster than its competitors and returned to profitability in 2002. By 2004 the global shipping industry was booming, and consolidating, and CP became the target of a number of take over rumours.
TUI AG-Hapag-Lloyd
On August 21, 2005, German conglomerate TUI AG offerred to acquire CP Ships Limited for €1.7 billion (US$2.0 billion) in cash, and merge it with TUI's Hapag-Lloyd division.
On August 30, 2005, Ship Acquisition Incorporated, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of TUI AG made a formal offer for 100% of CP Ships shares. The deal was approved by the boards of both CP Ships and TUI AG and was presented to CP Ships shareholders for approval.[1]
On October 19, 2005 CP Ships and TUI AG jointly announced that 89.1% of CP Ships shareholders, representing 84,095,325 common shares, had accepted Ship Acquisition Inc.'s August 30 offer. The shares were to be taken up the following day October 20, followed by payment of $21.50 USD per share on October 25, 2005.[2] Following the purchase and merger, TUI AG's combined Hapag-Lloyd and CP Ships fleet will comprise the fifth largest by capacity in the worldwide container shipping market.
