The maritime transport giant CMA CGM announced on Friday April 8 the takeover of nearly 100% of the French car transporter Gefco, yet another consequence of the crisis in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia.
This takeover by CMA CGM, the Marseille group, allows us to draw a definitive line on the episode of the Russian Railways.
Before the war in Ukraine, the conglomerate was Gefco’s main shareholder. Three quarters of the company had been sold to Russian Railways at the end of 2012, for 800 million euros. The remaining 25% still belonged to the Stellantis group, resulting from the merger between PSA and Fiat Chrysler.
Since then, the CEO of Russian Railways Oleg Belozyorov, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, has been placed under international sanctions, which has led the director of Gefco to announce the purchase of 75% of Russian shares.
The French government, which is closely following this transaction, had then stressed that it was only a first step.
After the takeover of CMA CGM, Gefco employees can finally breathe, commented the FO-UNCP union. The Marseille group intends to eventually integrate Gefco into CEVA, the Swiss logistics group acquired in 2019 to create the world leader in logistics for the automotive sector.
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