Geodis confirms OHL acquisition

French logistics company gets a stake in U.S. market with purchase of OHL for undisclosed sum, continuing trend this year of major 3PL acquisitions across the globe.    The French logistics provider Geodis on Monday said it will acquire the U.S.-based logistics provider Ozburn-Hessey Logistics for an undisclosed sum.
   Rumors of a pending deal emerged Friday, with speculation that the deal was for $800 million. Geodis, owned by French state-owned railway operator SNCF, confirmed the deal early Monday, continuing a string of major acquisitions in the global logistics markets in 2015.
   “Bringing together the complementary customer portfolios and capabilities, combined with the great cultural fit of both companies makes outstanding strategic sense for Geodis,” Geodis Chief Executive Officer Marie-Christine Lombard said in a statement.
   Geodis said OHL’s annual revenue is roughly $1.3 billion, tied to a range of contract and transportation-related logistics services. The company is wholly owned by the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Geodis’ own annual revenue is around $7 billion prior to the acquisition. It’s not immediately clear how many of OHL’s 8,000 employees will be retained.
   The deal gives Geodis a clear footprint in North America that it previously lacked, despite being a top five logistics provider in Europe. The company, an iconic name in the U.S. logistics market, specializes in apparel, electronics, healthcare, food and beverage, and consumer packaged goods sectors, Geodis said.
   “We are excited to join forces with Geodis and look forward to the extended reach of a worldwide group,” OHL CEO Randy Curran said in a statement.
   “We have known for some time that Geodis wanted to expand in the U.S. as part of an ambitious global development plan,” said John Manners-Bell, CEO of the U.K.-based consultancy Transport Intelligence. “Although the U.S. dollar has been strong, which has made any potential acquisitions more expensive for European companies, Geodis’ management has obviously taken a long term strategic view of the acquisition and the importance of the U.S. market.”
   Manners-Bell noted that the acquisition follows Kuehne + Nagel’s $500 million purchase of freight broker ReTrans in June, showing that the strength of the U.S. economy is proving highly attractive to European-based, global logistics providers.
   Other large deals in the global logistics market this year include XPO Logistics buying Norbert Dentressangle, Echo Global Logistics acquiring Command Transport, Kintetsu Express buying APL Logistics, Japan Post buying Toll Holdings, Greenbrier Equity taking a controlling stake in SEKO Logistics, FedEx acquiring GENCO and express competitor TNT in Europe, and UPS acquiring Coyote Logistics.
   Geodis has expanded significantly in recent years through acquisition as it aims to become a global provider of transportation and contract logistics. Notable among those acquisitions were deals for TNT Freight Management, Wilson Logistics, and IBM Logistics. The company also rebranded itself as simply Geodis earlier this year.