News / Boardroom shake-up at Sinotrans after takeover is scuppered

Photo: VesselFinder

Sinotrans has announced a management shake-up following the failure of the acquisition of its container line services by Antong Holdings late last month.

Duelling reports have claimed that both Antong and China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES), which owns Sinotrans Container Lines, scrapped the deal after failing to reach agreement on the former taking a majority stake in the box line.

However, it now appears CMES will not be looking for a new bidder, opting to step back from the restructuring plans it announced last year.

That would also have seen Shanghai-listed Antong take a majority stake in CMES’s car-carrier, China Merchants Guangzhou Ro-Ro Shipping, and its parent reorient its attention towards tanker and dry bulk shipping.

After CMES acquired a stake in Antong in 2019, any deal would have been “a reshuffling of container assets among China’s state-owned companies,” Alphaliner commented.

Nonetheless, the sale was “was expected to facilitate an eventual public listing for both subsidiaries”, and would have seen Antong, parent of Quanzhou Ansheng Shipping, surpass DP World’s Unifeeder as the 16th-largest liner operator.

A week after news that the acquisition had failed, Sinotrans announced board member Song Rong would be resigning “due to work reallocation”.

Details of his replacement have yet to be confirmed, but according to several reports, Gao Xiang, recently appointed general manager, was being lined up.

Ranked the 22^nd and 33^rd largest box ship operators, respectively, an Antong-Sinolines merger would have produced a carrier boasting 142,255 teu.