The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) shipping group, headquartered in Geneva and one of the world’s largest, has acquired a 51% stake in the TIS container terminal at the Port of Pivdennyi, according to a report by Latifundist citing data from YouControl.
According to YouControl data, the largest beneficial owners of TIS are MSC owners Diego and Alexa Aponte, each holding 25.5%.
In March of this year, it was reported that global container operator DP World sold its stake in the TIS container terminal nearly six years after acquiring it; the TIS Group bought it back.
According to DP World’s annual report, it owned a 51% stake in TIS Container Terminal Limited, listed as a multipurpose terminal.
According to YouControl, other owners and beneficiaries of the TIS container terminal include Alexey Fedorichev and his “Fedkom Invest SAM” – 18.375%, Oleg Kutateladze – 9.19%, and brothers Yegor Grebennikov and Andrey Stavnitser – 11.72% and 9.72%, respectively.
Viktor Berestenko, President of the Association of International Freight Forwarders of Ukraine, confirmed this information in a comment to Latifundist and noted that MSC’s arrival could, to some extent, intensify competition among container terminals and provide a boost to the development of port infrastructure in Ukraine.
As reported in May 2025, Medlog, a subsidiary of MSC, acquired from Grebennikov a 50% stake in the intermodal logistics operator N’UNIT and a 25% stake in the cross-border terminal “Mostiska.”
In 2024, MSC announced the completion of a deal to acquire a 49.9% stake in the German logistics group Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), which operates the Odessa Container Terminal (OCT).
The TIS Terminal Group is the largest stevedoring operator in Ukraine. The group comprises five terminals: “TIS-Container Terminal,” “TIS-Coal,” “TIS-Ore,” “TIS-Grain,” and “TIS-Mineral Fertilizers.” The group also owns and operates the largest infrastructure network, which includes a railway station.
According to information on the TIS Group website, the container terminal is the longest (600 m) and deepest (15 m) container terminal in the country. Its container handling capacity is 8 million tons/400,000 TEU per year. In 2021, Maersk consolidated all of its port calls in Ukraine at this terminal.
According to data from the YouControl system, the revenue of Pivdennyi Container Terminal LLC in 2025 decreased by 24.8% to 840.78 million UAH, while net profit fell by 2.8 times to 208.35 million UAH.
The Epicenter group of companies and the family of People’s Deputy Anatoly Urbansky intend to build a grain terminal in the port of Pivdennyi (Odesa region) with a transshipment capacity of 5 million tons of grain cargo per year at an estimated cost of $160-270 million, according to latifundist.com. The first announcement about the future terminal was made in November 2024 by Petro Mikhailishin, CEO of Epicenter K. In April 2025, the information was confirmed by Svitlana Nikitiuk, head of the group’s agricultural division.
The publication claims that the terminal construction project is not just a business plan. In 2025, Casablanca Shipping Limited (Cyprus), founded by Epicenter K, acquired a 32.61% stake in Promtechnizatsiya (Odesa).
The remaining 16.48% of the legal entity’s shares belong to Anatoliy Urbansky, and 25.46% each to Kateryna and Denys Urbansky. Promtechnizatsiya leases land plots in the water area of the Pivdennyi port and near the local highway T1606.
The total area of the plots for construction is about 32 hectares. This area is sufficient for the construction of a station for unloading railcars and motor vehicles near the highway, after which the grain will be sent through a transport gallery to silos and a transshipment terminal.
According to the publication, the construction of the terminal is still at the design stage, which was developed in 2024. Its estimated cargo turnover is 5 million tons per year, and the total capacity of the silo warehouses is 250,000 tons.
According to the project, a private railway station with a capacity of up to 3 million tons per year and the ability to handle up to five freight trains (50-70 cars) per day will be built to unload cars. The land plot for the railway station is 10 hectares. A wagon unloading station with a capacity of 2,000 tons per hour and a truck unloading station with a capacity of 1,000 tons per hour are planned for the facility.
The unloading station with main elevators will be connected by a 1,600 m long conveyor gallery with a capacity of 1,200 tons per hour. From there, the grain will be transported to silos: about 50 “banks” with a total capacity of 250,000 tons are planned, located on a 10-hectare site.
There are plans to build a berth up to 350 m long and 16 m deep. Agricultural products will be transshipped by two tower cranes with a capacity of 1,500 tons per hour. The equipment for unloading, transporting, storing, and transshipping grain is owned by Promtehinovatsiya.
According to port officials familiar with the construction progress, the project is being implemented successfully. The terminal is scheduled to be launched in 2026. Despite the technical complexity of the project, the publication’s interlocutors are optimistic about the prospects for the timely completion of construction. At the same time, market participants are reluctant to estimate the payback period of the project.
Epicenter K LLC, which includes Epicenter Agro, was established in 2003 and opened its first hypermarket in Kyiv in December of the same year. It has a network of shopping centers of the same name in Ukraine. Since 2016, it has been developing its agricultural business. It cultivates over 1,670,000 hectares in the Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, and Kyiv regions. The group includes 20 livestock farms and 15 elevator complexes with a total storage capacity of 2 million tons.
The agricultural holding’s own production of agricultural products is about 1 million tons. In 2025, Epicenter Agro launched its own trading business. Anatoliy Urbansky is a member of parliament, a member of the For the Future parliamentary group, and a member of the parliamentary committee on finance, tax, and customs policy.
Since 2005, he has been engaged in entrepreneurial activities in ship repair companies. Since 2009, he has been a manager for management and administrative activities and a consultant for ship repair and maintenance at Dunaysudoremont JSC. In 2011, he was elected a member of the supervisory boards of PJSC Dunaysudoremont and PJSC Izmail River Port Dunaysudorservis. In 2015, he was elected a member of the Odesa Regional Council.
