With immediate effect, Rhenus PartnerShip is strengthening its competitive position on the river Rhine, which is heading to Belgium. By adopting an internationalisation strategy, the inland waterway shipping specialist is expanding its services towards Antwerp and will act as an independent company in the Belgian market. To enable this development, Rhenus is increasing its shareholding in DGA Shipping to 100 per cent.

DGA Shipping operates in the inland waterway shipping sector in Belgium and offers services throughout the country and in the entire ARA region (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp).

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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 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, operates a business model similar to Rhenus PartnerShip in Germany. Rhenus held 45 per cent of the shares up to the present time; this has now increased to 100 per cent. 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, 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 per cent shareholding, Rhenus PartnerShip is consolidating its position in the marketplace, and we can support our customers even more flexibly. 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.

Rhenus focuses on Rhine traffic heading to Antwerp in this business development. “We want to expand our services towards Belgium and play a leading role in successfully establishing 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 robust network that DGA has established in the past with Rhenus and HGK. DGA has, among other things, access to both its transport capacity and a large external fleet.

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“We’ve greatly expanded the DGA business with HGK during the last few years, particularly in the chartering field. However, there has been, and still is, a great deal of potential that we now want to develop further,” says Thomas Maassen, summarising matters. The redistribution of the shares will not affect 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.

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