In an interesting turn of events, French shipping major CMA CGM's CEO Rodolphe Saadé has set his focus on media acquisitions.
According to Bloomberg, the carrier’s billionaire CEO has snapped up regional newspaper La Provence, but failed to get his hands on a broadcaster.
A consortium – of which he was a member – lost its bid for French television company Groupe M6.
“I am interested in media,” he said in an interview on France Inter radio. “I am looking at everything, the subject interests me.”
In France, 90% of media outlets are controlled by billionaires. Bernard Arnault, France's most wealthy man and founder of LVMH, owns significant shares in Les Echos and Le Parisien. François Pinault, founder of Kering and Artémis, owns the weekly magazine Le Point. The Dassault family, which made its fortune in aeronautics, remains the owner of the right-wing newspaper Le Figaro.
The Saadé family has a net worth of $16.3 billion.
Thanks to skyrocketing rates, shipping lines have built up a war chest which puts them firmly in the market for acquisitions.
While diversification from their core business was initially related to the likes of terminals and multimodal logistics acquisitions to provide end-to-end shipping solutions, with several launching airfreight divisions and buying into logistics and IT companies, they’re now venturing further afield.
In a recent move, shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company – through its wholly-owned subsidiary SAS Shipping Agency Services (SAS) – acquired Mediclinic, a global private medical care provider.
A joint newly formed company owned by SAS and Remgro, Manta Bidco Limited, acquired the healthcare provider for about 3.7 billion pounds.
