CEVA opens new global headquarters in Marseille

The Swiss forwarder CEVA Logistics opened its new global headquarters in Marseille on Nov. 14. The new location is adjacent to the headquarters of French seafreight firm CMA CGM, which began its corporate governance of CEVA this year.

CEVA struggled throughout 2018 and earlier, with declining air export volumes and net losses reported for multiple quarters during 2017 and 2018. The difficulties contributed to making CEVA an attractive acquisition target late in 2018 – Danish 3PL DSV made two offers to acquire CEVA Logistics, but rescinded its second offer over “unwillingness of the board of directors of CEVA to engage directly with DSV at the price per share offered,” according to a statement from DSV at the time.

However, CEVA did eventually pursue the deal with CMA CGM late in the year, under which CEVA acquired the company’s CMA CGM Logistics freight management subsidiary. Meanwhile, CMA CGM acquired more than 98% of CEVA’s share capital and voting rights, and CMA executives took leadership roles with CEVA. The relocation of CEVA’s headquarters to Marseille was also planned, to bring together the management teams and support functions at the companies.

A statement on the new location highlighted Marseille’s place as CEVA’s “home for innovative, digitalization projects that will transform how the business operates.” Among the projects under development at Marseille are a digital platform that displays the carbon footprint of customer supply chain models by transportation mode and a project developed in collaboration with French company Wing, to offer new e-commerce urban logistics solutions.