France’s CMA CGM shipping group has reached agreement with China Merchants Port (CMP) on the sale of its interests in eight port terminals to their jointly owned company Terminal Link.
The agreement covers CMA CGM’s interests in eight of the 10 terminals it plans to sell to Terminal Link and will generate additional cash totalling US$815 million for the Marseilles-based group.
CMA CGM said the sale of its interests in the remaining two terminals, Mundra Terminal in India and Gemalink in Cai Mep, Vietnam, should be completed by the end of the first half, generating an additional US$150 million.
Today’s announcement follows the approval of the CMA CGM-CMP deal by the European Commission last week.
CMA CGM’s objective in carrying out the sale is to generate fresh liquidity and reduce its debt. It retains control of the terminals via its 51% stake in Terminal Link, in which CMP is the junior partner with 49%.
The transaction is part of a US$2.1 billion liquidity plan announced by the group in November last year. The plan aims to reduce the group’s consolidated debt by more than US$1.3 billion by the end of the first half of this year and to enable the group to extend financing facilities which are due to come to maturity this year.
Chairman and chief executive Rodolphe Saadé, said today, “Amid the high uncertainty created by the COVID-19 health crisis, the closing of this transaction, as previously announced, demonstrates the resilience of the CMA CGM Group.”
The eight terminals concerned are: Odessa Terminal (Ukraine), CMA CGM PSA Lion Terminal (Singapore), Kingston Freeport Terminal (Jamaica), Rotterdam World Gateway (Netherlands), Qingdao Qianwan United Advance Container Terminal (China), Vietnam International Container Terminal, Laem Chabang International Terminal (Thailand) and Umm Qasr Terminal (Iraq).
Andrew Spurrier
Europe Correspondent
