According to Alphaliner, CMA CGM is selling its last shares of its remaining 8.3% stake in US-listed Global Ship Lease, the non-operating owner who founded it in 2007. divested its 3.05 million final shares, reducing your stake to zero.
Following a series of liquidations in recent years, it marks a break from the days when CMA CGM was the company’s main shareholder and also the charterer of most of its tonnage.
The article reports that CMA CGM created Global Ship Lease in 2007, and subsequently, CMA CGM created Global Ship Lease in 2007, and spun off the company in August 2008 through a reverse merger with NYSE-listed Marathon Acquisitions Corp. Marathon Acquisitions Corp. underwent another reinvention in 2018 when it announced a strategic combination with privately owned Poseidon Containers, backed by Greek shipowner George Youroukos, to create a larger containership-owning entity.
GSL is today ranked as the eighth largest non-operating owner with a fleet of 65 ships, of which 19 are currently chartered to CMA CGM (and its subsidiary ANL). This includes GSL’s largest containership, the 11,040 teu CMA CGM THALASSA. In total, CMA CGM has four charters that end next year and the rest expire between 2024 and 2028, reports Alphaliner.
CMA CGM is likely to have generated around $60M from the sale of the 3.05 million shares, disposing of its last shares on August 5th. The company had already signaled that it intended to sell the shares in May, when they were worth around $67m, Alphaliner reports.
GSL is administered from London and Athens. For his part, the current CEO, Ian Webber, was previously CFO of CP Ships, later bought by Germany’s TUI and merged with Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, informs Alphaliner.
Source: Alphaliner
