CMA CGM in Talks to Buy German Short-Sea Operator OPDR --Source

By Costas Paris 

LONDON--France's CMA CGM SA, the world's third-biggest container-shipping operator by capacity, is in talks to buy Germany's Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei GmbH as part of its strategy to control so-called short-sea operators that will feed cargo into its oceangoing vessels, a person familiar with the situation said.

"If it works out it, the deal could be announced this week," the person said, adding that the value of the deal is still being discussed.

OPDR owns five small container ships and charters a further three, each able to carry around 700 containers. It mainly moves cargo from Northern European ports to Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

CMA CGM has bought a number of smaller container-shipping operators in recent years to feed cargo into its giant container vessels that can move more than 17,000 containers each. The company trails A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S's Maersk Line, of Denmark, and Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. in capacity.

The French giant recently signed a deal with China Shipping Container Lines Co. and United Arab Shipping Co. to form an alliance called Ocean Three that plans to operate a combined 129 vessels, controlling around 20% of all cargo moved on the Asia-Europe loop, 14% of cargo crossing the Pacific Ocean and 10% of that crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

Write to Costas Paris at [e-mail]

Access Investor Kit for A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=DK0010244425

Access Investor Kit for A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=DK0010244508

Access Investor Kit for A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US00202F1021

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires