French CMA CGM to acquire Turkish Borusan's logistics subsidiary in $440 million deal

(Reuters) - French shipping giant CMA CGM's subsidiary CEVA Corporate Services has signed a deal to acquire Turkish conglomerate Borusan's logistics arm, Borusan Tedarik Zinciri Cozumleri ve Teknoloji, for $440 million, according to a filing by the Turkish company.

Borusan Yatirim said in the exchange filing that the price was subject to ordinary net cash and working capital adjustments, adding that the deal was subject to approval from competition authorities and other relevant regulatory bodies.

Borusan Tedarik operates the largest port in Turkey's manufacturing hub of Gemlik, with an annual capacity to handle 1,500 ships and around 400,000 twenty-foot containers (TEU), a standard measure for shipping containers.

CMA CGM is the world's third-largest container line.

Headquartered in Marseille, France, CEVA offers a broad range of end-to-end contract logistics and air, ocean, ground and finished vehicle transport in 170 countries worldwide thanks to its approximately 110,000 employees at more than 1,500 facilities.

CEVA said its planned acquisition of Borusan Tedarik, would nearly double its warehousing and distribution footprint in Turkey, adding around 570,000 square metres to its existing 620,000 square metres of space.

The deal would also boost its domestic ground transport operations, with the combined activities expected to handle nearly 1 million domestic shipments annually, CEVA said in a statement on its website. Borusan Tedarik's network is set to strengthen CEVA's connections with Europe, the company added.

CEVA said Borusan Tedarik's strong ties in the automotive sector would help lift its finished vehicle logistics (FVL) operations into a top-three position domestically. The acquisition is also expected to expand CEVA's ocean freight capacity by 25% and place its air freight operations among the top five in Turkey.

(Reporting by Miraç Eren Dereli and Canan Sevgili; Editing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and David Evans)