Expanding PWC Logistics to buy GeoLogistics in $454 million deal

Expanding PWC Logistics to buy GeoLogistics in $454 million deal PWC Logistics, based in Kuwait City, is continuing its recent spate of acquisitions by taking over privately held Santa Ana, Calif.-based GeoLogistics Corp. for $454 million on a debt-free basis.
   PWC Logistics said the combined group will generate revenues in excess of $3 billion with more than 10,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide.
   GeoLogistics’ senior management team will remain in place under PWC Logistics’ ownership and no material organizational changes are expected as a result of the acquisition, the companies said in a joint statement.
   “Freight forwarding is a service that will continue to grow at impressive rates, and one where strong market participants will continue to distance themselves from their midsize competitors,” said Tarek Sultan, chairman of PWC Logistics.
   “GeoLogistics will significantly increase PWC Logistics’ global forwarding capabilities, especially within, to, and from the Middle East,” Sultan added.
   “Over the past year, we’ve explored several options, including a public offering. However, it is clear that merging with PWC Logistics is by far the best strategic approach for our company,” said Bill Flynn, president and chief executive of GeoLogistics.
   Already this year, PWC Logistics has acquired Kenner, La.-based project cargo specialist Transoceanic Shipping Co. and Singapore-based logistics services provider Trans-Link Group.
   On top of all of the takeover activity, PWC Logistics was awarded in June a contract by the Defense Logistics Agency, worth up to $14 billion over a five-year period, to distribute food and related items to U.S. troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan. In the same month, the U.S. military awarded the company a heavy-lift transportation contract, valued at $1.5 billion over five years, which was described by PWC Logistics at the time as the “largest heavy-lift transportation contract ever awarded by the U.S. military.”