The European Commission has approved, under the European Merger Regulation, the acquisition by French container ship giant CMA CGM of the Finnish container shipping and logistics company Containerships.
The French firm signed a relevant agreement with Container Finance Ltd Oy, pursuant to which it would acquire Containerships, in late June.
Containerships is an Intra-European Shortsea specialist with a strong presence in the Baltic market, Russia, Northern Europe, North Africa and Turkey, which is expected to strengthen CMA CGM’s intra-European offer, specially in North Europe and the Mediterranean.
CMA CGM Group is already present on the intra-regional market through its subsidiaries: CNC in Intra Asia, Mercosul, one of the leading players in Brazil’s domestic container shipping market, Sofrana, a key player in the Pacific Islands regional maritime trade, or MacAndrews in Europe. The acquisition of Containerships will strengthen even more the development strategy implemented by Rodolphe Saadé, CMA CGM Group’s Chairman and CEO, aimed at densifying the Group’s regional network,
…CMA CGM had earlier stated on the acquisition.
The Commission concluded that the proposed merger would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on the structure of the door-to-door multimodal transport market, scheduled shipping, port and port remote handling services and freight forwarding services.
The transaction was examined as part of the normal merger control procedure.
