Transport: CMA-CGM achieves in 2022 the highest profit published by a French company
A container ship of the French amateur CMA-CGM (illustration image).
Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP
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In 2022, the CMA-CGM group will post, for the second consecutive year, a record profit of 23 billion euros.
This is more than TotalEnergies, Stellantis and LVMH and puts the French shipowner, which is not listed on the stock exchange, above all the biggest companies in the CAC 40. The CMA-CGM was carried by the prices - historically high - ocean freight
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In a simple press release, the Marseille shipowner announced its fabulous results last year.
In 2022, its turnover increased by 33.1% to more than 70 billion euros, net profits reached 23 billion euros and the operating margin reached a stratospheric level of 44.7%.
It is the highest profit published by a French company in 2022, ahead of those of TotalEnergies, Stellantis and LVMH, and one of the largest ever recorded in the history of French companies.
To avoid any controversy, the management of the group hastened to underline the exceptional nature of these figures in the midst of a debate on the superprofits of companies and ensures that 90% of the profits will be reinvested.
The shipowner has thus multiplied investments in boats and port terminals (in New York and India in particular), and is negotiating the takeover of the company La Méridionale, which links Marseille to Corsica and Morocco.
It is also preparing for new upheavals in maritime freight by diversifying: it has invested in land, air and space logistics and in the media.
Back to normal soon?
The world's third-largest shipowner chaired by Rodolphe Saadé has 150,000 employees and operates 250 lines.
Its growth was driven by sea freight prices which peaked after the pandemic, due to a rebound in global demand.
Like its competitors in the EU, CMA-CGM is subject to tonnage tax, but its effective tax rate remains extremely low at 2% in 2021 according to a mission from the National Assembly.
Enough to fuel the debate on the participation of this giant in a special tax for those who generated exceptional profits during the Covid-19 crisis.
But CMA-CGM warns that the party could quickly end.
In the last quarter of 2022, revenue fell 3.6% and profit was halved, impacted in particular by a slowdown in ocean freight and lower prices.
The volumes transported by the group on the East-West axis were down 7.2% in the last quarter.
And sea freight rates have been cut fivefold since peaks in late 2021 and early 2022, according to British firm Drewry's index.
The year 2023 could therefore be the time for a return to normal, with uncertain supply and demand.
The group, unlisted, does not make quantified forecasts.
(
With
AFP)
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