1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194 
Experts say Dentressangle is paying too much for Salvesen
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE £.254M BID by Norbert Dentressangle (ND) for Christian Salvesen has astonished analysts, who say the French logistics company is paying well over the odds for the firm.
Questions now hang over how ND will squeeze profitability out of a merger deal that values Salvesen at three times more than it was worth just a few months ago, and also its impact on the market in general.
ND's bid comes after Eddie Stobart's revelation that it is moving into multi-modal operations following a reverse takeover deal with Westbury Property Fund. The two deals are very different, but Chris Morgan at analyst Datamonitor says it is evidence that finding success in today's logistics market is not simple. "There's no clear winning strategy for road transportation," he says. "No one can say that the way togo is road, rail or sea. People are still feeling their way around and following their own strategy."
Morgan says the deal will be welcomed by competitors fighting within a heavily fragmented market. He thinks the acquisition is probably driven more by what ND's customers want — more trucks and facilities to transport more of the same products—rather than any new business the French company bids for.
Morgan thinks ND paid over the odds in order to prevent a bidding war,but it has still shocked others.
Thomas Cullen, analyst at Transport Intelligence, says: "The Salvesen family must be cocka-hoop, but you would think the ND investors might have some sleepless nights. It's always a question in a takeover bid: have we paid too much?"
He adds: -Frankly, anyone would be mad not to take this deal. It's jaw-dropping."
Cullen says the impact on the wider market will be minimal because the deal still doesn't propel the two merged companies into multinational status, and therefore allows medium-sized outfits to exploit any openings created. "ND is bold and ambitious, but it isn't going to turn into a vast corporation overnight. It's effectively a family-owned company; it's not big enough to be vast and impersonal," he says.
But this is not a view shared by international logistics operator Davies Turner. Joint MD Philip Stephenson says ND's acquisition and Stobart's sale are good news. "It's provided us with an opportunity. Our approach to customers, whether big or small, is that we think very carefully about what they need and we provide that service. If you are really big. then if I were mean I would say it becomes 'one size fits all'," he says.
Stephenson is optimistic about the future of the market for firms of this size. "These very big companies will go their own way, but I am quite sure they will leave a big opening in the market for people with the determination to build their own businesses," he says.
"I am still quite sure that people still want to run their own businesses, rather than be a part of a multinational, which is a little less personal."