Losses Continue at Chilean Shipping Company CSAV

SANTIAGO -(Dow Jones)- Chilean shipper Compania Sudamericana de Vapores SA‘s (VAPORES.SN) first-quarter loss widened to $205 million compared with a loss of $186 million a year earlier, the company said in a late-Wednesday filing with the Chilean regulator SVS.

The wider first-quarter loss was due to the restructuring process the company is completing, which started in the second quarter of 2011, the Vapores said.

Vapores, Latin America’s largest shipper, issued 630 million new shares and raised $129 million in January, the last part of a $1.2 billion capital increase aimed to improve its financial situation after surging fuel costs and lower shipping rates deteriorated its 2011 results.

As part of its restructuring process, Vapores also split off its port-operator unit Sociedad Matriz SAAM SA (SMSAAM.SN) into a separate publicly traded company earlier this year.

Vapores’s first-quarter operating revenue decreased to $832 million from $1.45 billion a year earlier.

The company ended March with $523 million in cash and cash equivalents compared with $173 million at the end of 2011.

Vapores is controlled by the local Luksic family, through their Quinenco SA(QUINENCO.SN) holding company, and the local Claro family, through Maritima de Inversiones SA (MARINSA.SN) holding company.

-By Graciela Ibanez, Dow Jones Newswires