Billions in revenue targeted
The Schenker sale is likely to take some time
March 21, 2024, 4:48 p.m
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Deutsche Bahn’s numbers don’t look good. The Schenker logistics division is a positive exception. It will also make less profit in 2023 than before, but will continue to generate money. The planned sale should bring in a lot for the railway. But we still have to wait a bit for that.
Deutsche Bahn expects to sell its freight forwarding subsidiary Schenker in the second half of the year. A purchase agreement for Schenker before June 30th “would surprise me,” said Bahn CFO Levin Holle at the balance sheet press conference in Berlin. He expects a deal to be completed by the middle of the year. However, this depends on how quickly the next round of the bidding process runs. In the first phase, more than 20 interested parties registered. The group gave the starting signal for an open sales process in December.
“Of course we want to sell to whoever offers the highest price,” says Holle. Bidders could submit their first indicative offers in the next few days. “Then we will look at it and reduce the field significantly.” Holle does not expect the deal to be completed until next year.
The international freight forwarding subsidiary that was put up for sale only made a profit of 1.1 billion euros last year. In 2022, Schenker achieved a record profit of 1.8 billion euros. The logistics company felt that the high freight rates were returning to normal as the Corona crisis ebbed. Holle said Schenker was still a “reliable profit generator with very pleasing results and good future prospects.”
The expected sales proceeds – estimates are between 12 and 15 billion euros – are intended to reduce the group’s mountain of debt. This increased to 34 (previous year: 29) billion euros in 2023. DB Schenker operates in land transport as well as air and sea freight and, with around 76,600 employees in more than 130 countries, is one of the leading logistics service providers worldwide.
With a view to the still simmering collective bargaining conflict with the GDL train drivers’ union, railway personnel director Martin Seiler also expressed optimism. The talks are on a “good track,” he said. However, the negotiations have not yet been completed and in order not to make an agreement more difficult, no interim results will be published. “We hope that we will achieve this goal in the coming days.”