CMA CGM SA, the French shipper reorganizing 5.4 billion euros ($7.1 billion) of debt, recorded a 41 percent surge in first-half sales as the global shipping recovery lifted prices and volumes.
Revenue jumped to $6.8 billion from $4.8 billion, according to figures obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by CMA spokesman Guillaume Foucault. Freight volumes rose 22 percent to 4.41 million containers.
“The recovery of demand and freight tariffs is clearly well underway,” Foucault said by telephone, declining to comment on the reorganization talks. “It’s a solid turnaround.”
CMA and competitors including Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd AG were forced to renegotiate debt and seek new capital last year after the economic crisis hit shipping demand and rates. The $1 billion recorded by CMA in first-half earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation compares with a $568 million loss in the same period of 2009.
France’s FSI sovereign-wealth fund is in talks with Belgian billionaire Albert Frere’s Cie. Nationale a Portefeuille SA over a joint investment in the shipping company, said an FSI spokesman who declined to be named, citing company policy. Nationale a Portefeuille didn’t return calls and messages left for Managing Director Gilles Samyn.
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