Nedlloyd

The company used to bring these shipping companies together was the Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie (NSU), which dated from 1908. NSU was set up to defend SMN and KRL against foreign takeovers, particularly the British company Blue Funnel. Initially SMN, KRL and VNS were managed out of Rijswijk, while KJCPL remained a separate business unit run from their office in Hong Kong. In 1977 it was decided by the then management of B.E. Ruys, J.Groenendijk, E.A. van Walsum and A. van Putten to do away with the name NSU and rebrand all the business units into one Nedlloyd style. At the same time KJCPL (known in the Southern Hemisphere as Royal Interocean Lines) was to be also part of Nedlloyd Lines, as the shipping arm of the Nedlloyd Group was to be known.

Thus in 1977 NSU changed its name to Koninklijke Nedlloyd Groep N.V. ("Royal Nedlloyd Group"), and merged in 1981 with the KNSM Group N.V. In the 1990s the Nedlloyd Group faced tough competition and eventually had to find a partner for their container-liner business.