CEVA recommends holdouts sell shares to CMA CGM

   CEVA Logistics is recommending remaining shareholders that have not already tendered shares to the French container shipping company CMA CGM do so in a new tender offer that will begin Wednesday and run through April 2.
   The two companies are expected to become more integrated with CEVA, saying its board of directors will propose that Rodolphe Saadé, chairman and chief executive officer of CMA CGM, be elected as chairman of the CEVA Board of Directors at CEVA’s upcoming annual general meeting on April 29. It is also expected that CEVA’s current chairman, attorney Rolf Watter, will become vice chairman of CEVA following the annual meeting and that CMA CGM will retain three independent members of CEVA as directors for the time being.
   CMA CGM was already CEVA’s largest shareholder when it launched an initial tender offer for CEVA shares that ran from Feb. 12 to March 13. CEVA said, “Shares tendered into the offer during the initial offer period could, subject to settlement of the offer and the acquisition of additional shares by CMA CGM, result in CMA CGM holding an aggregate of at least 49,388,515 shares of CEVA, corresponding to 89.47 percent of the share capital and voting rights of CEVA.
   “CEVA acknowledges that CMA CGM is likely to hold, after settlement of the offer, a percentage of the share capital and voting rights of CEVA that would allow CMA CGM to implement a squeeze-out” and delisting of the company from the SIX Swiss Exchange. A “squeeze-out” is the compulsory sale of shares held by minority shareholders.
   CEVA said members of its executive board will tender their shares into the offer and that shares held by its board of directors will be unblocked so that they too may may tender their shares.