CMA CGM

CMA CGM SA (CMA CGM) yesterday (28 June) announced it had crossed the compulsory acquisition ownership threshold in Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL).

Following its all-cash voluntary conditional general offer for NOL which was launched on 6 June 2016, CMA CGM now owns 2,376,715,557 shares representing approximately 91.28 per cent of NOL’s share capital, CMA CGM said in a press release.

CMA CGM confirms that it intends to exercise its rights of compulsory acquisition to compulsorily acquire all the NOL shares held by NOL shareholders who have not accepted the offer, at a price equal to the Offer Price of SGD1.30, in accordance with the Companies Act (Chapter 50 of Singapore).

CMA CGM will therefore exercise its rights to compulsorily acquire the remaining NOL shares as soon as practicable after the close of the offer, it said. Payment for NOL shares that are compulsorily acquired will be made in cash within seven business days after the completion of the compulsory acquisition exercise, which is expected to take at least one month from its commencement.

Further information on the compulsory acquisition process will be announced in due course, CMA CGM said.

Marseille, France, headquartered CMA CGM, founded and led by Jacques R. Saadé, is a leading worldwide shipping group.

Its 450 vessels call at more than 400 ports in the world, across all five continents. In 2015, they carried 13 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).

Headquartered in Singapore, NOL is the largest shipping company listed on the Singapore Exchange. Its container shipping arm, APL, provides world-class container shipping and terminal services, as well as intermodal operations supported by leading-edge IT and e-commerce. APL offers transcontinental cargo shipping across Asia, North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Australia through more than 80 weekly services calling at 160 ports worldwide.