Andronico Luksic Craig is walking away from Chile’s Compania Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) after a roller-coaster decade.
Announcing the move one year before his 70th birthday, Luksic said “the time has come for me to step away from the day-to-day work, to open the way for other leaders”.
He will step down as vice-chairman of CSAV as well as his board roles with other Chilean companies at the end of the year.
“I have always believed that a fundamental challenge for business leaders is to recognise when a cycle has been completed, and to make timely and carefully planned changes to allow for the evolution of the next phases,” he said.
Luksic will be replaced at CSAV by Pablo Granifo Lavin on 29 December. Granifo will also take over from Luksic as chairman of the family holding company, Quinenco.
The Luksic family have profited massively from their shareholding in Hapag-Lloyd.
In 2014, CSAV was taken over by Hapag-Lloyd, giving the Chilean company a 30% stake in its German partner.
That was an investment that paid off handsomely for the Luksic family, which is now worth $25bn, Bloomberg reported.
'Complex times'
Luksic added that CSAV was “one of the most complex business challenges in which I have had to participate”.
He said it involved “rescuing a century-old company that was on the verge of bankruptcy, preparing it to compete in the ‘big leagues’ and progressively transforming it into one of the most prosperous in the history of our country”.
That had been a success “thanks to the successful merger with the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd.”
The CSAV board added that Luksic had played a role at CSAV during “very complex times and were decisive for the history and future of the company”.
In 2022, Hapag-Lloyd recorded an $18bn profit, with CSAV banking $5.6bn in earnings. This made up more than 90% of Quinenco’s profit.
And Quinenco’s subsidiary, SAAM, sold $1bn in port assets to Hapag-Lloyd last year.
“We converted SM SAAM, which was originally a subsidiary of CSAV, into a publicly traded company, which has achieved a leading position in its industry throughout the Americas,” Luksic said.
Founded in 1957, Quinenco initially focused on wooden supports for tunnels. Now it has interests in finance, drinks and logistics. But Luksic is also resigning his board roles with Compania Cervecerias Unidas (CCU), LQ Inversiones Financieras (LQIF), Banco de Chile and Invexans.
