CMA CGM is playing its cards close to its chest about moving in on acquiring Geodis, a fellow French enterprise said to be worth €13.7 billion, with a logistics footprint in more than 150 countries and a staff complement of almost 50,000.
Currently, the French line is finalising a €5.5bn takeover of Bolloré Logistics which, although confirmed last May, has elicited strong reservations within industry ranks about the carrier’s ‘integrator’ strategy.
Its aggressive buyout strategy started in February 2019 when it bought 97.89% of Ceva Logistics’ shares for $1.65bn.
Since CMA CGM’s takeover, the struggling forwarder has embarked on a cost-cutting exercise that has culled its staff by 100 in Latin America and another 100 in Asia.
In late January it also emerged that the line had bought UK forwarder Wincanton, worth about £765 million, for $700m cash.
Yet CMA CGA maintains that it’s still neutral, which has become a problem for them, Loadstar publisher Alex Lennane has said in an interview.
With Ceva and Wincanton tied up, Bolloré almost part of its fold and Geodis on its radar, it was becoming increasingly harder to say that it was just part of its integration strategy, she said.
“They are still trying to persuade forwarders that they are neutral, but it’s getting more difficult for them.
“They keep buying forwarders.”
