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Heavily indebted CMA CGM, the world's third-biggest shipping group, has received a lifeline from its creditors in exchange for a management reorganisation.
After weeks of intensive discussions, 63 creditor banks late Thursday agreed at a meeting at the French finance ministry to provide the group with loans worth 500 million dollars (348 million euros), a company spokesman said.
The agreement, to take effect next month, will enable CMA CGM to deal with its obligations and to avoid having to undergo a court-mandated safeguard procedure.
The company is saddled with debt of 5.0 billion dollars.
But in exchange for the loans, CMA CGM has agreed to replace its current supervisory board with a board of directors.
CMA CGM, one of the leading private sector employers in the southern French port city of Marseille, is a family-owned business headed by its founder, Jacques Saade.
If Saade in the planned re-shuffle becomes chairman, he will be responsible for company strategy only. Operational responsibilities will be given to chief executive Philippe Soulie, who until July had headed a company that manufactures escalators, according to the spokesman.
CMA CGM, which employs 16,500 people worldwide, is also to get two new directors, Denis Ranque, former chairman of engineering group Thales, and Christian Garin, head of the professional shipping association Armateurs de France.
The company's supervisory board is to meet December 23 to approve the new organisation.
The group's immediate task is to complete negotiations with South Korean shipbuilders on CMA CGM's request to delay delivery of 49 ships scheduled for delivery by 2012, the spokesman said.
