CMA CGM in deal with Turkish company

CMA CGM in deal with Turkish company    Turkish company Yildirim Group will invest $500 million in CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container carrier by acquiring five-year convertible equity notes equivalent to a 20 percent stake in the French shipping company.
   Yildirim will also be given three seats on the 10-member board of directors.
   Yildirim Group is a family-run holding company with interests in chrome ore mining and trading, ferrochrome production and trading, coal trading, fertilizer production and trading, shipping, shipbuilding, and port management.

Saad'

   'This alliance with Yildirim Group will enable us to strengthen CMA CGM's balance sheet,' said Jacques R. Saad', chairman of the board of directors of CMA CGM. 'We have taken the time to choose the right partner, who shares our values and vision of CMA CGM's future. The arrival of a new investor will provide our group with additional resources to support and step up its growth and represents a major milestone in our history.”
   CMA CGM said it had revenue in the first nine months of 2010 of $10.5 billion, up 38 percent over the prior-year period, while freight volumes rose by nearly 18 percent year-on-year to 6.8 million TEU. It earned a profit of nearly $1.4 billion in the first nine months of 2010 compared to a loss of $852 million in the first nine months of 2009.
   “These good results are attributable to the group’s strategic choices, reflected in its investment policy in large vessels and its proactive cost reduction plan, together with the resumption of world trade and in particular, the growth in volumes on the Asia/Europe (up 21.1 percent) and Asia/U.S. lines (up 15.4 percent) in the first nine months of the year,” the company said in a statement. It added that “after the usual seasonal decline in volumes and freight rates this autumn, the year will end with very good results.”
   CMA CGM said it operates a fleet of 400 ships, 92 of which were owned. It said it has taken delivery of 12 new ships this year and expects to add nine new ships to its owned fleet in 2011, including six    ships of more than 10,000 TEUs.
   Yildirim Group President and Chief Executive Robert Yuksel Yildirim said in a joint conference call Friday that CMA CGM had turned down an offer from the Yildirim Group for a $1 billion investment package, according to a report by maritime journal Tradewinds. Yildirim said the further $500 million would be available if needed.
   'We do not want to get involved in the day-to-day running of the company,' Yildirim said. “We see ourselves more in the industry than the financial side. We speak the same language as (CMA CGM). We know the shipping business, the shipbuilding business, the port business. I think CMA will be better and stronger in the market from this cooperation, as we are not only in the shipping but also the commodity side.”