CMA CGM is making a move into ropax ownership with the takeover of French operator La Meridionale.
The French container line will buy the Marseille-based passenger and freight operation from its owner, the logistics company Stef, according to Le Marin.
Stef has reportedly told La Meridionale’s management team that a deal has been concluded.
Stanislas Lemor, Stef’s chief executive, will travel to Marseille on Monday to meet staff representatives.
The price is remaining confidential but has been estimated at a few tens of millions of euros.
The company is said to have been losing money for several years.
This week it scrapped its unviable Barcelona to Tangier service.
At the beginning of January, Stef appointed a new general manager for La Meridionale, Guillaume de Feydeau, a specialist in corporate restructuring.
He was immediately the subject of a no-confidence motion from the company’s unions.
Disposal plan mulled for months
Le Marin said Stef had been considering the idea of disposing of its shipping interests for several months, but the CEO’s father, Stef shareholder Francis Lemor, was said to be very attached to the ro-ro operation.
The ferry company was sold to him in the 1990s by the Rastit and Rousset families.
La Meridionale, founded in 1931 by the brothers Henri and Felix Rastit, has 440 workers and four ropaxes built in the 1990s and in 2011.
This is not the first time that CMA CGM, flush with cash from the boxship boom, has stepped in to help a French shipowner.
Wide range of investments
It invested $30m in ailing Brittany Ferries last year, to help the shortsea operator recover from its loss of passenger traffic during the pandemic.
Also in 2022, CMA CGM bid an estimated €450m to €500m ($483m to $536m) to buy French logistics company Gefco to save it from the threat of Russian sanctions.
In addition, the group has been diversifying into cargo aviation and newspapers, having had a bid accepted to buy the daily La Provence last year.
CMA CGM is also an investor in Neoline, which is building a wind-powered ro-ro for cross-Atlantic trade.
