While news about presumed or presumed interests of leading global navigation for the acquisition of South Korea's HMM and of the Israeli ZIM, the board of directors of the latter has today published a letter addressed to the shareholders of the company in view of the next annual meeting to be held on 26 December in which he invites them to vote in favour of all eight candidates for the position of director of ZIM and to vote against the three candidates for the same office proposed by the "dissenting shareholders" led by Mor Gemel & Pension Ltd., Reading Capital Ltd. and Sparta 24 Ltd.

In the letter, the Board of Directors points out that in recent years ZIM has Gone through a significant operational and financial transformation strengthening the operating platform, modernizing the fleet, perfecting the commercial network, producing significant returns for shareholders and building a governance framework focused on independence, competence and careful supervision that have made it possible to position ZIM as a solid and highly competitive company in a sector in strong change. In particular, the Board of Directors administration underlined that starting from the public offer initial 2021 ZIM generated the total returns for the highest shareholders among competitors and greater than 300%, distributing extraordinary dividends of $5.7 billion from the IPO, i.e. over $47 per share, equal to more than three times the price of the IPO.

In addition, the board of directors confirmed that it is conducting a strategic review within the framework of its mandate to act in the best interests of all shareholders and to evaluate opportunities to increase value. In In this context, the Board of Directors recalled that it had received several months ago an unsolicited and non-binding preliminary proposal from Eli Glickman, CEO and President of ZIM, and Rami Ungar and to have evaluated the proposal by establishing unanimously which significantly underestimated the value of ZIM. Specifying then at the same time having conducted contacts with various strategic parties and financial resources, the Board of Directors confirmed that it had received "multiple expressions of interest that the Board of Directors is carefully evaluating. Our goal - specifies the Board of Directors in the letter - is unique: identify the path you maximize value for all shareholders. The management - recalls the Board of Directors shareholders - does not participate in the evaluation of alternatives and The analysis is conducted exclusively by the Board of Directors independent administration".

Explaining to shareholders why they should not vote on the candidates proposed by the "dissenting shareholders", the The Board said in the letter that this group's campaign dissident is misleading and harmful and based on "falsehood Assuming that the Management Board is planning to sell the company to the management team at a price inadequate". Leadership group - it should be remembered - whose proposal is already been assessed and rejected. "As he has made known publicly - the letter continues - the Board of Directors administration is instead pursuing a wide-ranging and has already received expressions of interest from more than including a strategic interest'. The latter could was expressed by the German Hapag-Lloyd which was cited by several parties as a potential purchaser of ZIM.

"It is important to underline - highlights the Board of Directors in the letter - which, despite trying to control almost half of the Management Board, the dissident group did not other ideas to improve ZIM's activities, the fleet strategy, capital allocation or competitive positioning. The only substantial proposal put forward concerns statements made to the Israeli media on the their desire for ZIM to issue a substantial dividend which would undermine its liquidity and create a substantial risk to shareholder value, given our Intensive rental model, requiring liquidity adequate to face the cycles of the sector".

"At this critical moment," the letter concludes, "the continuity of independent and qualified supervision by part of the board of directors is essential. Support the company's candidates and vote against the Shareholder Group nominees will help preserve the integrity of our board of supervisors management of our business and strategy, as well as strategic review, and to protect the value of your investment".