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Erdem & Erdem (Turkey) has advised Yıldırım Group to invest US $500 million in CMA CGM, third largest company worldwide in the container shipping, in the form

of five-year convertible bonds that will give Yıldırım Group access to 20% of CMA CGM’s share capital at maturity. Yildirim will also have three of the ten seats on CMA CGM’s Board of Directors.

Yıldırım Group is an international corporation with interests in multiple sectors which include worldwide trading in commodities such as coal, ferrochrome and chrome ore; fertilizers and chemicals; and shipping, shipbuilding, and port operations. In 2009, the group, which has more than 5,000 employees, posted sales of US $1.5 billion.

The CMA CGM deal is the Turkish group’s second investment in Europe, after its 2008 acquisition of Vargön Alloys AB, a Swedish ferrochrome producer which again represented by Erdem & Erdem.

The transaction successfully closed on 27 January 2011 after the acquisition of clearance by the competent antitrust authorities.