Shipping: "CMA CGM completes sale of eight port terminals to Terminal Link for US$815m"

As noted on the story of folks pawning their $10 million paintings: "It's always nice to have assets"
Also, liquidity is good.*
From Container Management:

CMA CGM Group has closed the first part of its agreement with China Merchants Port (CMP), with the sale of its stakes in eight port terminals to Terminal Link for US$815m in cash.

The transaction, which is part of the French company’s US$2.1bn liquidity plan, is meant to help it reduce its debt and immediately increase its liquidity.

This plan among others aims to reduce CMA CGM’s consolidated debt by more than US$1.3bn by the end of first-half 2020 and allows to extend certain financing facilities maturing during the year.

The initial disposal includes the following terminals: Odessa Terminal (Ukraine), CMA CGM PSA Lion Terminal (Singapore), Kingston Freeport Terminal (Jamaica), Rotterdam World Gateway (Netherlands), Qingdao Qianwan United Advance Container Terminal (China), Vietnam International Container Terminal (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), Laem Chabang International Terminal (Thailand) and Umm Qasr Terminal (Iraq).

It is hoped that the Terminal Link joint venture, which was created in 2013 and is 51% owned by CMA CGM and 49% by CMP, will be able to expand its geographic footprint and global network, thereby enhancing its business development prospects....MORE

*One of the reasons we read books is so we can learn from the mistakes of other,s avoid making those mistakes, and get on with making mistakes of our own.
Here's the key takeaway from the insolvency of venerable and giant Krupp, brought low by what was in effect maturity transformation:

"Liquidity is expensive but illiquidity is much more so,
because it destroys the very existence of a firm"
-William Manchester, The Arms of Krupp

The family dynasty had a pretty good run, 1587 to 1968, for a while becoming the largest company in Europe before needing to be bailed out which required the fam to relinquish control.

Manchester's book is something like a half-million words long but it's those 18 in the quote above that really hit a nerve.
From an August 2007 post just after the quant-quake:
Liquidity in Business and Markets

I don't remember if it was Johannes or Ernst, it was a long time ago that I read Manchester, quoting one of the Schroeder boys on the insolvency of Krupp. That line has stuck with me. Here's the book.

So good for the Saadé clan for getting CMA CGM out ahead of any liquidity crunch.