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NOL appoints new CEO, CFO amid takeover by France's CMA CGM

SINGAPORE's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL)'s new chief executive officer Nicolas Sartini and chief financial officer Serge Corbel are both from France's CMA CGM, which owns 81 per cent of the company.

The new CEO Nicolas Sartini now takes over from Ng Yat Chung, who has been group president and CEO of NOL since October 2011.

Mr Ng will continue as an executive director on the NOL board and special adviser to the chairman, CMA CGM and NOL said in a joint press release.

Serge Corbel takes over from Cedric Foo, who had been CFO since January 2007. Both Mr Sartini and Mr Corbel are from CMA CGM, and the former's most recent role was as the French shipping giant's group senior vice president.

The NOL board was reconstituted the same day that CMA CGM's offer went unconditional, last Thursday, with Rodolphe Saade, the vice chairman of CMA CGM, succeeding former NOL chairman Kwa Chong Seng.

Mr Kwa will remain an independent director on the board, both companies said in the release.

The company has said that it intends to delist NOL when it owns at least 90 per cent of the latter's shares. Minority shareholders have until July 18 to sell their shares to CMA CGM at the offered price.

NOL, Southeast Asia's largest container shipping firm, has been losing money in recent years. Last month, it reported a loss of S$142 million (US$105.1 million) for the first quarter of the year.