Exel acquires Tibbett & Britten Group for $600 million

Exel acquires Tibbett & Britten Group for $600 million    Exel, a U.K.-based provider of logistics services, and Tibbett & Britten, another U.K.-based global logistics provider, said they have agreed to Exel’ s acquisition of the Tibbett & Britten group for '328 million ($600 million).
   Tibbett & Britten’s board “intend unanimously to recommend that Tibbett & Britten shareholders accept the offer,” the company said in a statement. UBS, a merchant bank, is handling the deal on behalf of Exel.
   “We believe this is a full and fair offer to Tibbett & Britten shareholders, providing the certainty of a cash exit at a substantial premium,” said John Allan, chief executive of Exel.
   “I am pleased that we have been able to reach agreement on terms that deliver good value to our shareholders, and bring our business and customers into an enlarged group that shares our own cultural values and customer focus,” said John Harvey, executive chairman of Tibbett & Britten. Harvey has said he will retire at the end of 2004.
   The acquisition gives Exel “critical mass in a number of key markets,” especially providing “customers in non-food retail,” Exel said in a joint statement with Tibbett & Britten. Exel said, based on preliminary analysis, it could achieve cost savings of '15 million ($27.5 million) to '20 million ($36.6 million) per year resulting from the integration and elimination of duplicated functions.
   Exel has 67,000 employees and penetration of more than 215 of the world largest 250 customers, according to the 2003 edition of “Who’s Who in Logistics?,” an independent guide published in the United States by Armstrong & Associates Inc. Tibbett & Britten, with 36,000 employees, derives 83 percent of its total revenue from operations mainly in the United Kingdom and United States.
   John Hayes, a spokesman for Tibbett & Britten, told Shippers News Wire the acquisition, which has to be approved by European regulators, could be completed “within six to eight weeks.”