French ocean carrier CMA CGM is meeting with creditor banks and French finance ministry officials in Paris Sept. 25 to discuss its financial situation.
The talks will focus on how CMA CGM can tap the government’s strategic investment fund which aims to help strategically important French companies through the global economic downturn, according to French press reports.
CMA CGM, the world’s third largest ocean carrier, declined to confirm or deny the reports.
CMA CGM does not comment on market rumors or on the existence of hypothetical talks, a spokesman for the Marseilles-based carrier said. The company is actively working on several questions regarding its development and possible ways to finance it, he said.
Earlier this month, CMA CGM founder and Chairman Jacques Saade urged European governments and banks to act to ensure Europe’s top carriers Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM survive container shipping’s deepest slump.
“I call on the competent authorities, banks and public bodies to protect the three big European maritime companies and ensure the survival of the maritime sector in Europe,” Saade said at a meeting of Medef, the French employers’ federation.
The French ship-owners association has lobbied the government to establish a $1.8 billion fund to help carriers meet banks’ demands for extra collateral to cover the fall in value of ships on order.
CMA CGM, which is said to have debts of around $5 billion, has said it will lose money this year after making a net profit of $124 million on revenue of $15.2 billion in 2008.
Saade said the carrier hopes to break even, or move into profit, by the first quarter of 2010.
CMA CGM has a fleet of 363 ships, 91 owned and 272 chartered with a combined capacity of 1,024,225 TEUs. It has 60 vessels of 505,688 TEUs on order.
The talks will focus on how CMA CGM can tap the government’s strategic investment fund which aims to help strategically important French companies through the global economic downturn, according to French press reports.
CMA CGM, the world’s third largest ocean carrier, declined to confirm or deny the reports.
CMA CGM does not comment on market rumors or on the existence of hypothetical talks, a spokesman for the Marseilles-based carrier said. The company is actively working on several questions regarding its development and possible ways to finance it, he said.
Earlier this month, CMA CGM founder and Chairman Jacques Saade urged European governments and banks to act to ensure Europe’s top carriers Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM survive container shipping’s deepest slump.
“I call on the competent authorities, banks and public bodies to protect the three big European maritime companies and ensure the survival of the maritime sector in Europe,” Saade said at a meeting of Medef, the French employers’ federation.
The French ship-owners association has lobbied the government to establish a $1.8 billion fund to help carriers meet banks’ demands for extra collateral to cover the fall in value of ships on order.
CMA CGM, which is said to have debts of around $5 billion, has said it will lose money this year after making a net profit of $124 million on revenue of $15.2 billion in 2008.
Saade said the carrier hopes to break even, or move into profit, by the first quarter of 2010.
CMA CGM has a fleet of 363 ships, 91 owned and 272 chartered with a combined capacity of 1,024,225 TEUs. It has 60 vessels of 505,688 TEUs on order.