Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, which in turn owned other subsidiaries such as Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. Hapag-Lloyd AG is the world's fifth largest container carrier in terms of vessel capacity. The company was formed in 1970 as a merger of two 19th-century companies, Hapag, which dated from 1847, and Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) or North German Lloyd (NGL), which was formed in 1856. Hapag-Lloyd was acquired in 1998 by TUI AG (Hanover) and became its fully owned subsidiary in 2002. In 2009, TUI sold a majority stake to a group of private investors and the City of Hamburg, the so-called Albert Ballin Consortium. The main founders of Hapag and Lloyd in the 19th century were Berenberg Bank, Fritz Albert Haas, and H. J. Merck