ZIM Sold for $3.7 Billion, With 16 Ships Kept in Israeli Hands

ZIM, Israel's national shipping line, is to change hands. Germany's Hapag-Lloyd and the Israeli investment fund FIMI are jointly acquiring the company in a deal valued at approximately $3.7 billion, Israeli officials announced on a Sunday. The agreement follows a six-month tender process during which ZIM, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, sought buyers; after the sale it is expected to be delisted.

The structure is a split rather than a straightforward takeover. Hapag-Lloyd is to take control of ZIM's global operations, including 99 leased ships, its international shipping routes, marketing networks and technology platforms. FIMI is to oversee a "new ZIM" company retaining 16 Israeli-flagged ships, direct routes to Israel and the company headquarters in Haifa. The fund's role is also intended to preserve Israel's strategic interests: in times of conflict it is required to ensure the country can mobilise ships to carry essential goods such as ammunition, wheat and fuel.

What a golden share is and why it is here

The Israeli government holds a "golden share" in ZIM, a special state shareholding intended to let the state intervene in emergencies, along the lines of the arrangement covering the national airline El Al. Globes reported on 15 February 2026 that the transaction is structured so Hapag-Lloyd takes the international activities that fall outside Israeli regulatory restrictions while FIMI takes the Israeli operations that the golden share governs, with the delisting executed through a reverse triangular merger.

A week later, The Times of Israel reported from a 22 February 2026 session of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee that the golden share requires ZIM to keep an Israeli presence including 11 Israeli-owned vessels, and that the share would transfer to a FIMI subsidiary if the deal is approved. At the same session a Defence Ministry representative pointed to European arms embargoes imposed since October 2023 as a reason Israeli-controlled shipping capacity matters, and FIMI's founder, Ishay Davidi, told the committee the new company would be capitalised with $700 million in equity and no debt.

The price and the opposition

The sale represents a significant premium over ZIM's market value at the time of around $2.7 billion. Officials said the joint Hapag-Lloyd and FIMI bid was one of several offers received and had reached the final stages of approval.

The most forceful public objection came from the mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, on both economic and national-security grounds. "ZIM is no longer a company in the Israeli economy. This is a company whose existence has strategic significance for the economy and security of the State of Israel, and employs thousands of workers, a large part of whom live in Haifa," Yahav said.

"Transferring its ownership to foreign hands, even if an Israeli investment fund is involved, is problematic to say the least and harms National Security, and could also lead to the dismissal of thousands of workers," he continued. "I demand that the israeli government stop the move and prevent the sale; it is impossible for the State of Israel not to have a shipping company in Israeli hands. It is part of its economic and security existence."

The Gulf shareholders in the buyer

One complication runs through the whole debate. Hapag-Lloyd is itself partly owned by foreign sovereign wealth funds, including Qatar at 12.3 per cent and Saudi Arabia at 10.2 per cent. The Times of Israel's account of the Knesset session recorded the same shareholdings (Qatar Holding and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund) being raised by members as a reason for caution about foreign control of a strategic Israeli asset.

No government ministers publicly opposed the transaction, and analysts expected the sale to close soon.

What is still unclear

The statement did not say what happens to ZIM's workforce under either half of the split, or how many of the thousands of jobs Yahav referred to sit inside the Israeli company FIMI will run. It did not specify what regulatory approvals remain outstanding or on what timetable. And it did not explain how the wartime mobilisation obligation would be enforced in practice, or how the 16 Israeli-flagged ships named in the announcement relate to the golden share's separate vessel requirement.