CMA CGM, the world’s third- largest container-shipping company, announced talks with creditors aimed at restructuring its debt and averting bankruptcy, amid an industry-wide slump in volumes and profits.

The privately held company will discuss “measures to address the group’s short- and medium-term financing requirements” with creditor banks on a newly established committee, CMA CGM said today in an e-mailed statement.

The Marseille-based company is among shipping operators hit by the global economic slump. Excess capacity has exacerbated a collapse of prices and profitability as transporters continue taking delivery of new ships ordered before the crisis.

France’s FSI, a sovereign wealth fund established by President Nicolas Sarkozy, said it would not consider buying a stake before the company restructures its debt, Yves Jambu- Merlin, a fund spokesman, said by telephone today.

“Once they’ve restructured their debt, if they need to raise cash they can come to us and we’ll consider their application,” Jambu-Merlin said.

The spokesman declined to comment on a report in L’Agefi that the fund met with CMA CGM representatives and refused to invest in the company until it had solved its debt problems.

CMA CGM took delivery of 123 ships and removed 159 from service in the first nine months of 2009, said Guillaume Foucault, a company spokesman. He declined to discuss outstanding orders for vessels, the membership of the creditors committee or whether the company had breached covenants on any of its debt, which he put at $5.2 billion as of Dec. 31, 2008.

The first meetings with creditors are already scheduled, with the objective of reaching an agreement by mid-November, CMA CGM said. The company is wholly owned by the Saade family and headed by Chief Executive Officer Jacques Saade. (Bloomberg)