Saade: CMA CGM has resumed profitability

Saade: CMA CGM has resumed profitability    The founder and chairman of CMA CGM has told a French newspaper that his company returned to profitability in November, even as it announced a financial restructuring last week.
   In an interview with Le Figaro last week, Jacques Saade said he was confident the company would resume its momentum.

Saade

   He said the company is negotiating with Korean shipyards to cancel the purchase of 15 ships and delay the delivery of another dozen ships from one to two years.
   But he said the company will continue to receive very large ships of 13,800 TEUs, stating they are a necessity on the Asia/Europe trade route.
   Saade said that the banks Societe Generale and BNP Paribas supplied the company with the cash it needed to continue its financial restructuring. He said bankruptcy is not in the mentality of CMA CGM.
   The company announced last week that as part of a deal in which it received a $500 million credit line that Saade would leave his job as chief executive officer and be replaced in that post by Philippe Souli', chief executive officer of French conglomerate Constructions Industrielles de la Mediterranee (CNIM). Saade will remain as chairman of the company. He said the change was requested by the banks and that the company had become too large to be managed solely by his family.
   Saade said the company is looking to sell 40 percent of a real estate subsidiary with assets of about $600 million and is exploring the sale of port terminals.
   The company is also seeking to raise $300 million or $500 million dollars from an outside “industrial investor.” He said the Louis Dreyfus Group has expressed interest, and that his company has contacts in the Middle East. But he added that his goal is to retain a majority stake in the company.