Israel's largest cargo firm acquired by Saudi and Qatari-owned shipping giant

German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, partly owned by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, signed a deal on Monday to acquire Israeli flagship cargo company ZIM.

The deal, which still needs the final approval of the state of Israel, is worth $4.2bn.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are minority shareholders in the German shipping giant, which is the fifth-largest shipping company in the world.

According to the Hapag-Lloyd website, Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, owns 12.3 percent of the company's shares, while the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia owns 10.2 percent.

ZIM, established in 1945, is Israel's largest shipping company, with headquarters in the port city of Haifa. 

The Israeli government had been the sole owner of the company until its privatisation in the early 2000s.

According to the company website, ZIM is "operating globally in over 90 countries and serving over 32,000 customers in 300 ports worldwide".

The government still has shares in ZIM. According to Israeli media, the Government Companies Authority's senior deputy director general, Galit Widerman, has asked for more information about the deal before the government's approval.

According to news site Ynet, the deal will not be completed until next year due to different regulatory processes.

Operations in Israel, according to the new deal, will be held by FIMI, an Israeli private equity firm that joined Hapag-Lloyd in acquiring ZIM.

Ishay Davidi, the CEO of FIMI, said that his firm "recognizes and believes in the strategic importance for the State of Israel of a strong independent Israeli shipping company".

"We will create a stable Israeli company, the new ZIM, and view Hapag-Lloyd as a significant strategic partner for its on-going operations," he added.

Samer Haj-Yehia, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, who represented Hapag-Lloyd in the deal, told Israeli financial news outlet TheMarker that the German shipping giant "understands that it must maintain a profitable company with financial resilience, because this is a national interest of the State of Israel".

Haj-Yehia added that Hapag-Lloyd "intends to invest in ZIM’s development centre in Haifa in areas such as cyber defence".

According to Israeli media reports, Hapag-Lloyd continued to operate in Israel during the duration of the Gaza genocide, despite worldwide calls to boycott Israel.

ZIM workers strike

Hapag-Lloyd's intention to acquire ZIM, first revealed in December 2025 by Israeli media, led to strong opposition from the Israeli shipping company's union workers.

On Tuesday, ZIM union workers declared a strike, as unloading and offloading of the company's ships stopped.

"We have escalated our steps. The ships are standing in the ports," Oren Casspi, chair of the ZIM workers' union, said in a statement to the press.

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Casspi said that the ZIM hierarchy doesn't "give a damn about us", and added that "If the Germans want the company, they’ll get it without money and with damages".

"As far as I’m concerned, we’ll burn the company down," the union leader said.

According to TheMarker, ZIM employs about 1,000 workers in Israel, and 880 are at risk of losing their job.

Hapag-Lloyd's representative Haj-Yehia told TheMarker that the German company "will guarantee all employees employment for at least one year after the completion of the deal, which is expected to take place in about a year".

Yair Seroussi, chairman of ZIM's board of directors, said that the deal is "dedicated to maximizing shareholder value".