CMA CGM Eyes OPDR Acquisition

French shipping giant CMA CGM revealed plans to acquire the German company OPDR (Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei GmbH & Co. KG).

The announcement was made during a visit to Hamburg, Germany by the Group’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jacques R. Saadé on November 25th.

OPDR is a shipping company owned by the Bernhard Schulte Group, an expert in Short Sea Shipping and door to door logistics for North Europe, Canary Islands, the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.

The company connects Europe, Scandinavia and North Africa with its over 200 collaborators and its network of agencies.

Farid T. Salem, CMA CGM Group Executive Officer, said: “This new acquisition reinforces the Group’s presence on the growing intra-European Short Sea transportation market. This is a continuation of our strategy to broaden our regional network, a strategy which began with the acquisition of MacAndrews in 2002. As with MacAndrews, we plan on maintaining and developing the OPDR company, as well as creating new synergies with both MacAndrews and the CMA CGM Group.”

OPDR operates five different services between:

• North Europe and the Canary Islands,
• Seville and the Canary Islands,
• North Europe, Spain, Portugal and Morocco,
• North Europe and Morocco,
• North Europe, Spain and Scandinavia.

According to CMA CGM, OPDR and MacAndrews joint capacities will reinforce the Group’s intra-European offering.

In 2014, OPDR expects to carry over 240,000 TEUs, and MacAndrews expects to carry over 290,000 TEUs.

The closing of this transaction is subject to the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities.

Press Release