Snapshot: It's a stellar Q3 for CMA CGM as Ceva turnaround 'starts to bear fruit'

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” ― Alexander Pope

As widely expected, France’s CMA CGM today reported stellar interim results, with nine-month (9M ’20) and third-quarter (Q3 ’20) profits coming in at $751m and $567m, respectively.

(Source CMA CGM)

Take this: in the first nine months, it added more than $1bn of group ebit against 9M ’19.

Notably, Q3 ’20 revenues rose to $8bn from $7.6bn, on a comparable basis.

In his prepared remarks, chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saadé said:

“The group reported very strong financial and operating performances due to the full commitment of its teams. Our shipping activity has seen a significant increase in volumes transported compared to the second quarter of 2020, and Ceva’s transformation plan starts to bear fruit. This crisis has also demonstrated the solidity of our business model and demonstrated the relevance of our strategy, combining logistics solutions with transport offering.”

Net debt was down to $16.6bn from $17.8bn at the end of 2019 (30 June: $17bn), with debt repayments at almost $4bn versus $2.2bn in the first nine months of 2019.

Interest payments fell to $381m in the first nine months, down 8.8%, while operating cash flows rose to $3.7bn from $2.5bn one year earlier.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at $2.1bn at the end of September.

It added that in “this favourable environment and thanks to the ongoing control of unit costs, the group should see a further improvement in the ebitda margin in the fourth quarter.”

Its trading update can be found here; our preliminary Premium coverage of the interim results released by Ceva Logistics is here.