MARSEILLES shipping giant CMA CGM, the world's third biggest container line after Maersk and MSC, lost nearly US$1 billion in wrong-way fuel hedging in 2008, according to Liberation, the leftist Parisian newspaper founded by Jean-Paul Sarte.
The report said the losses occurred after cautious oil price hedging turned into "a full-scale speculative investment" as oil prices soared to $150 per barrel in 2008 but then plunged $30. Liberation said the result left CMA CGM without cash reserves as billion dollar debts came due.
CMA CGM then faced its Himalayan $5.6 billion debt just as an unprecedented downturn in container shipping hit bringing a vortex of plunging rates and falling consumer demand..
Company founder and former CEO Jacques Saade has since stepped aside, taking the position of company chairman, as active management falls to new executives acceptable to lenders who provided a bailout package in exchange for internal reforms.
Source : HKSG, 14.01.10.
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