France’s CMA CGM has completed the $2.4bn takeover of Singaporean flagship Neptune Orient Lines (NOL). The last dissenting shareholders have been paid off and now NOL, and its containerline subsidiary APL, are part of the Marseille-headquarted giant boxline. Today will mark the final day for NOL as a listed entity on the Singapore Exchange – it will be delisted as of tomorrow morning.
As part of the NOL integration process, CMA CGM has reviewed the portfolio of brands deployed on its various lines and concluded that only two brands should be used on each trade. APL will now serve as the core brand alongside CMA CGM on the transpacific, transatlantic and Asia-Gulf lines.
ANL, another CMA CGM subsidiary, will be repositioned on the Asia-Oceania trade.
“Reorganisation of the APL and CMA CGM lines will be further improved when Ocean Alliance is implemented next April,” the French line noted in its latest quarterly briefing last week. Ocean Alliance is a new container grouping which also includes OOCL, Cosco and Evergreen.
