Tuesday 17th August 2021
Mainz company taken over
DHL buys ocean freight specialists
Deutsche Post is strengthening its sea freight capacities with a multi-billion dollar acquisition. After restructuring the division, the company is now getting new major customers on board.
Deutsche Post wants to strengthen its freight division, which is growing rapidly after the Corona crisis, by taking over the sea freight specialist JF Hillebrand Group. The Post is buying the logistics company for around 1.5 billion euros from the Belgian investor Cobepa, announced the Bonn-based company, which has focused primarily on growth from its own resources in recent years. According to insiders, several financial investors tried to get the Mainz-based company, which specializes in the transport of beverages such as wine, beer and liquids – but in the end, Swiss Post was able to prevail. The antitrust authorities in various countries have yet to approve the transaction.
According to the company, Hillebrand’s customers include the Campari Group and the large brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev. Hillebrand employs around 2,700 people worldwide and most recently had an annual turnover of around 1.4 billion euros. The head of the group, Cees van Gent, is also no stranger to Swiss Post – he also worked for the DHL subsidiary in the past. Hillebrand currently employs a good 2,700 people in 90 countries.
The merger with Hillebrand will strengthen the group’s position on the sea freight forwarding market, the Post said. The takeover is “a unique opportunity for Deutsche Post DHL Group to expand its business to include high-quality sea freight services with strong margins and high cash flow,” emphasized Finance Director Melanie Kreis. The transaction will have a positive impact on earnings and cash flow from day one.
The freight division has long been a problem child of the Bonn-based group due to low margins and a failed changeover in data processing. That changed, however, after Tim Scharwath moved to the top of the division in mid-2017 and restructured it. In the first half of 2021, the division’s sales climbed to just under ten (previous year: 7.7) billion euros, operating income (EBIT) doubled to 528 million euros, and the return on sales reached 5.3 percent. In the ocean freight sector, Swiss Post competes with Kuehne + Nagel and DSV Panalpina, among others.
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