The French group announced on Monday the acquisition of the largest port operator in Brazil, Santos Brasil, which has become a necessary passage for international trade.
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French shipping company CMA-CGM announced on Monday, September 23, the purchase of Brazil’s largest airport operator: Santos Brasil. For this strategic acquisition, the group has just signed a check for 1.8 billion euros. Santos Brasil is to date one of the largest investments of the group led by the powerful businessman Rodolphe Saadé, who admits to having put on the table a sum that he would not have spent just a few years ago. But, in his eyes, the Brazilian economy has become “ripe and dynamic”.
When we talk about port infrastructure, we are actually talking about key positions that are three huge terminals in the Sao Paulo region, an open door to a commercial El Dorado. The third largest shipping company in the world and the first French company, CMA-CGM could not miss this operation that marks a new important phase in its development. An operation that is all the more strategic since the investment basket includes a shipping company whose ships can irrigate Latin America. An opportunity to control the transport chain and production costs.
Insatiable appetite of the Marseille sea ogre, present today in 160 countries, much further than the giant container ships that can be seen blocking the horizon off the French coast or in the English Channel to reach the countries of Northern Europe. At the beginning of the year, CMA acquired Bolloré Logistics for nearly five billion euros and with 14,000 employees. CMA-CGM was created in 1978 by Jacques Saadé (Franco-Lebanese of Syrian origin), father of the current CEO Rodolphe. The group now owns around fifty freight terminals worldwide, which allows it to compete with the American giant DHL.
A CMA-CGM group is counting on a little more than three billion euros of profits in 2023 against 22 billion in 2022, thanks to the post-Covid recovery. In the economic daily The Echoes, Monday, September 23, Rodolphe Saadé assures that he will be there if the French State sets up an exceptional solidarity contribution as part of the evolution of its fiscal policy.