GAC broadens European reach

   GAC Group has expanded its Nordic ship agency, liner agency and project logistics network through the purchase of Lehmann Nordic Group’s shipping subsidiaries.
   The acquisition will give GAC more than 45 new staff and five additional offices in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
   LN, established in Copenhagen in 1900, grew from its origins as a custom clearance and freight forwarding company to a liner agent in the Scandinavian network.
   Under the agreement, GAC has full ownership of LN’s three shipping subsidiaries:

• Lehmann Shipping, which consists of Lehmann Junior, Joship, Transweco Projects & Chartering, Transweco, Transweco Agency, and Scanweco.
• Christian Jensen Shipping.
• Lehmann Shipping Center.

   “Until now, GAC has been working in the region through partners and agents. The time is right for us to finally establish our own presence here to ensure stricter control and consistency of standards,” said Ivo Verheyen, GAC Group vice president, in a statement.
   This is the latest in a series of European acquisitions by GAC, which also included John Nurminen Navis Oy of Finland in 2010, OBC in the United Kingdom and Rotterdam in 2008, Ole R Olsen of Norway in 2007, and U.K.-based Benair in 2005.
   After it lets go of its shipping subsidiaries, LN still has interests in terminal and logistics activities at the Port of Aarhus.