CMA CGM Completes Acquisition of Containerships

CMA CGM has completed its acquisition of Containerships after the European Commission authorized the transaction on October 22. The acquisition is part of CMA CGM's strategy aimed at densifying its regional network which began in 2002 with the acquisition of MacAndrews.

News ID: 80271

Date: 02 November 2018 - 15:56

Containerships, which specializes in the intra-European market, will complement CMA CGM’s service offering, the company says. Founded in 1966, Containerships is a Finnish company specialized in Intra-European containerized trade with 690 employees. It offers logistics solutions that include sea, road, rail and barge.
Upon closing the agreement, Container Finance’s entire container logistics operations including mainly Containerships plc as well as Multi-link Terminals Ltd and CD Holding Oy will integrate CMA CGM’s intra-regional market offering in Europe.
With the acquisition of Containerships, CMA CGM says it strengthens its position as a major player in intra-European transport, in particular through the combination of the geographical areas covered by Containerships and MacAndrews. MacAndrews, recently merged with OPDR, covers Great Britain, Poland, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain (including the Canary Islands), Portugal and Morocco, Containerships is present in the Baltic markets, Russia, Northern Europe, North Africa and Turkey.
In 2017, 2.2 million TEUs were transported on CMA CGM Group's and Containerships’ intra-European lines. As a result of the acquisition, CMA CGM Group’s intra-European activities will be run by 2,700 employees located in 130 offices.
CMA CGM is already present regionally through its subsidiaries: CNC Line, one of the leaders in the Intra-Asia market; Mercosul, a leader in the domestic container transport market in Brazil and Sofrana, a major player in regional trade in the Pacific Islands.
With Containerships, CMA CGM is also pursuing its strategy towards the protection of the environment with the upcoming entry into Containerships’ fleet of four 1,400 TEU vessels powered by LNG. These vessels will be followed, from 2020 onwards, by the entry into service of the nine 22,000 TEU and two 1,400 TEU container ships ordered by the CMA CGM Group. In addition, Containerships has a fleet of LNG-powered trucks, enabling the CMA CGM Group to offer LNG throughout the transport cycle.
Containerships’ third and fourth LNG-powered vessels were christened earlier this month at the Wenchong Shipyard, China. The vessels were named M/S Containerships Finn and M/S Containerships Balt. The first two LNG-powered vessels are expected to be delivered during 2018 and the last two during January – March 2019.