Finance
MSC unit drops Moby deal after Italian antitrust probe
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
MSC's SAS unit drops its 49% stake acquisition in Moby after an Italian antitrust probe, impacting ferry operations.
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's antitrust regulator said on Friday that Shipping Agencies Services (SAS), a unit of maritime group MSC, would drop its acquisition of a 49% stake in ferry operator Moby after the watchdog opened a probe into alleged restriction of competition.
Moby, majority-owned by Onorato Armatori group, runs ferries linking Italy's mainland to tourist islands such as Sardinia and Corsica.
The Italian authority, which opened an investigation into the acquisition last year, said the deal could have weakened competition on routes where Moby and ferry company Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV), controlled by SAS, operate.
Under the commitments offered by SAS and Moby, SAS will transfer to Onorato Armatori its 49% stake in Moby without consideration, the watchdog said in a statement.
Moby will mandate an independent third party to open a "competitive and transparent" procedure for the sale of a package of assets, the proceeds of which will be used to repay a loan granted to Moby by SAS in 2023.
SAS and Moby will also provide compensation to customers who bought tickets before July 16.
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Gavin Jones)
An antitrust probe is an investigation conducted by regulatory authorities to determine if a company is engaging in anti-competitive practices that harm market competition.
A stake in a company refers to the ownership interest or share that an individual or entity holds in that company, often represented as a percentage of total shares.
A loan is a sum of money borrowed that is expected to be paid back with interest over a specified period.
A ferry operator is a company that provides transportation services across bodies of water, typically using boats or ferries to carry passengers and vehicles.
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