CSAV noted the results were in the context of a year in which freight rates were lower than in 2012 and in which the industry continued to show overcapacity.
“The improvement in the results is mainly due to the internal changes we have made in the company,” CSAV Ceo Oscar Hasbun said. He added that in a balanced industry scenario, the company has great profit potential, in spite of the industry unstability.
“The company had no assets before so it had high ship-chartering costs. This situation is now changing thanks to the large capital injections made. By the end of 2015 we will have over 50% of own fleet, which will also be one of the most modern and efficient in the industry”. Those investments will be determinant factors in the results for the coming years, Hasbun said.
The company stated that the board would call an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting for 21 March to vote on a capital increase of $200m to be carried out during the first half of this year. Its principal purpose is to complete the financing for the acquisition of the seven 9,300 teu containerships currently being built. CSAV main shareholder and controlling group, Quiñenco Holdings, is committed to acquire the balance of shares not subscribed by the market during the pre-emptive option period, until completing the proceeds of $200m.
The meeting should also ratify the possible merger of the containership business of both CSAV and Hapag Lloyd. Last January, both companies signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding establishing that, should the merger be completed, CSAV would receive 30% of the combined company, a percentage subject to closing adjustments.
If the operation is approved, the meeting will give the right to non-consenting shareholders to leave. A limit will be proposed to the percentage of shareholders opposed to the transaction, this being less than 5% of the total shares of CSAV.
With respect to the investigation currently being carried out by the United States Department of Justice to determinate the existence of anti-trust practices in the car-carrier market, CSAV reported that it has signed Monday an agreement with the American authority by which it is committed to pay a fine of $8.9m.
The investigation announced in mid-2012 sought to determine possible price fixing in the car-carrier market between the year 2000 and September 2012.
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