CEVA Logistics has elected new governance to “accelerate its strategic transformation” and said Nicolas Sartini is to take over as chief executive officer (CEO) on 1 June from Xavier Urbain.
Sartini is the current group chief operating officer and deputy CEO. Urbain will become executive advisor to Rodolphe Saadé.
Meanwhile, CMA CGM chairman and CEO, Saadé has also been elected as chairman of the CEVA board with Rolf Watter acting as vice chairman.
CEVA has also reported its financial results for the first quarter (Q1) of 2019 and reported that revenue increased by 1.1 per cent in constant currencies to US$1.6 billion. The group’s EBITDA was $134 million in Q1. As of 31 March, 2019, the company had a net debt of $2.4 billion.
Revenue in Freight Management decreased by 0.7 per cent to $797 million in Q1. Air volumes decreased by 6.9 per cent year-on-year, mainly from downtrading of some trade lanes and a selective approach to new business whilst air yield (net revenue per ton) has increased by 2.2 per cent to 806 US$/t.
CEVA also said a ‘squeeze out procedure’ as after the of the public tender offer and taking into account additional shares CMA CGM has subsequently purchased in the market, it now holds more than 98 per cent of the share capital and voting rights of CEVA.
CMA CGM will therefore proceed with the squeeze out procedure and will file the claim for cancellation of the remaining outstanding CEVA shares.
As for the future CEVA said: “Despite a challenging global environment in the beginning of the year, CEVA has performed in line with its roadmap and targets and achieved a number of productivity improvements.
“The implementation of CEVA’s new strategic plan, prepared jointly with CMA CGM, and the close cooperation between the teams of the two companies are going to drive an improvement in CEVA’s financial performance and help it turn around quickly.
“This cooperation will be further improved with the opening of a CEVA operational center in Marseilles to bring together CEVA’s management teams and support functions, i.e. 200 jobs (creation and transfer).
