News

French logistics company Geodis is being tipped as an acquisition target in a report published by industry analyst Transport Intelligence (TI). Global Contract Logistics 2007 says fragmentation in the industry hints at the likelihood of further mergers and acquisitions in the months to come, such as the forthcoming takeover of Christian Salvesen by Norbert Dentressangle.

The report finds that the top ten logistics companies account for just over 25% of the global market, mean-ing that more  high-profile buy-outs are a possibility. TI analyst John Manners-Bell says: "Geodis is a possibility, although its ownership structure [it is part owned by French national railway operator SNCF] makes this tricky." The report says DHL and Kuehne + Nagel(K+N) are the fastest-growing companies acquisitively and Ryder is growing very fast on an organic basis (20%).  Manners-Bell adds: "Of course, Norbert Dentressangle will be one of the fastest growing in 2007 following its acquisition of Salvesen."

Norbert Dentressangle and DSV - the merged DFDS and Frans Maas operations - were among the best performing, judging by their operating profit margins of between 1.6% and 6%. TDG, Wincanton, DHL Exel Supply Chain, Ceva, Salvesen and K+N all came in at the lower end of this range - 1.6% to 3% - due to their focus on the highly competitive and price-dominated European consumer and retail sectors.