French group Geodis has bought TNT’s freight forwarding business in a deal that values the business at £310 million.
TNT decided to put the business, TNT Freight Management, up for sale after selling its logistics division.
The business had sales of £527m in 2005, about half of which came from air freight and about 40 per cent from sea freight.
The acquisition will double Geodis’ revenue from freight forwarding to about £1.1bn —more than one third of the total revenue of the Geodis group. It will also put it among the top five freight forwarders in Europe and among the top ten globally, adding to its existing network positions in Scandinavia, the Americas, (Canada, USA, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), Australia and New Zealand, and Germany.
The combined new entity will have revenue of £3bn, based on 2005 figures, and 26,000 employees around the world.
As a result, groupage and express will make up 35.5 per cent of the group’s activities, freight forwarding will account for 35.6 per cent, and logistics and associated transport: will account for the remaining 28.9 per cent. Geodis expects synergies worth some £24m a year.
Pierre Blayau, chairman and chief executive of Geodis said: “This transaction, made possible by our capital structure, which we have made healthy after six years of work, is in line with our international development strategy of expanding in activities of strong growth. Freight forwarding is an increasingly important activity in transport and logistics. Our new critical mass makes us more competitive and better positioned to serve our clients.”
