CMA CGM shareholder Robert Yildirim has an unusual hobby: he buys football clubs for fun.
It is an expensive pastime, but the Turkish billionaire has done well out of the container shipping boom as a result of investments such as his 24% stake in CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest line.
He expects to retain that holding. Selling it could necessitate an IPO, a move that is likely to be years away, he told TradeWinds.
So, while waiting, Yildirim is enjoying the fruits of his entrepreneurial ventures by investing in soccer teams around the world.
“I bought my hometown [Samsun] football team [Samsunspor], as they were bankrupt in Turkey. Last summer I bought Dunkirk football club [USL Dunkerque],” he said.
“Now I am looking at one club in Portugal and one club in Latin America — either Colombia or Ecuador — and one in Africa.”
Potential targets include the second division team Leixoes in Portugal, where Yildirim owns a port operating company. He has also been linked to clubs in African countries including Senegal.
“I will build a multi-club platform,” he said. “The goal is to develop young players and bring them to the market.”
Expensive indulgence
It is an expensive indulgence — and the self-proclaimed workaholic has others.
“Just recently, I bought a yacht but never used it, I don’t have any time,” he told Marine Money Hamburg on Wednesday.
Yildirim heads a conglomerate spanning metals and mining, ports and international trade.
He emerged on the shipping radar more than a decade ago when he came to the rescue of the then-heavily indebted CMA CGM.
Yildirim invested $500m in return for CMA CGM stock when the French carrier was burdened with a bevy of newbuildings and close to $7bn of debt.
Some observers at the time saw that investment as the “single worst in the history of shipping”, Matt McCleery, president of Marine Money, told the Hamburg conference.
Years later, the investment proved just the opposite, as the pandemic pushed container earnings to record highs.
CMA CGM reported two extremely profitable years in 2021 and 2022. Net income was $24.88bn in 2022, although it slumped 85% last year to $3.64bn.
Yildirim approached CMA CGM as an industrial investor.
“People called me crazy, but we did a very good restructuring programme with the banks,” he told Marine Money Hamburg.
Powerful man
His early investment in CMA CGM involved a lot of arguments with the late Jacques Saade, father to current chief executive Rodolphe.
“He was a very powerful man, he had to do it his way,” said Yildirim, who used his veto rights to block orders of vessels.
“Now I miss those days,” he told TradeWinds. “He was pushing his way, and I was trying to defend my investment.”
Yildirim came close to selling his stake in 2017 when the stock was marketed for sale.
He decided not to push for an IPO as a “favour” to the Saade family, although that made his own potential exit from the investment harder.
“I was looking for buyers but it was so difficult. Nobody wanted to invest, so I had to stay in CMA CGM and make sure they didn’t make the same mistakes as in the past.”
Advice
One piece of advice the billionaire passed on to the Saade family related to alliances.
He argued that liner companies should not buy more newbuildings, but focus on buying secondhand ships, or industry consolidation. If that was not possible, then they should forge alliances
Some months later, the three largest liner operators, AP Moller-Maersk, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company and CMA CGM, sought to forge alliances.
“From that moment, container lines were very disciplined and they started making money. And I don’t think this will change,” he said.
This week, CMA CGM unveiled a five-year extension to its Ocean Alliance agreement with Cosco, OOCL and Evergreen. “We asked 10, but they agreed five, which is good,” said Yildirim.
As a result, CMA CGM is “one of the healthiest companies in the world”, sitting on more than $30bn in cash.
