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Im CONTAINER HAULAGE
Page 8
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Pentalver sale could take up to 12 months
MAERSK COULD struggle to off-load its container haulage subsidiary, says a source close to the business. Any sale could take up to a year to finalise because the sector is in such a poor state.
Although the global shipping line says it is not in active talks over the sale of any of its UK shareholdings, a well-placed source tells CM that it is aware of a "few people" that have expressed interest in buying Pentalver (Cannock).
However, the source says venture capitalists may only be feigning interest in order to gather information, adding: "I might be wrong, and this is tied up in a month, but I struggle to think who [a purchaser] might be."
In its latest set of accounts, Pentalver (Cannock) generated revenues of 228.3m for the year ending 31 December 2008 a 14% increase on 2007. However, pre-tax profit was largely unchanged at 22.5m.
Maersk-owned Pentalver Group bought Bowmur Haulage in 2005 and later changed its name to Pentalver (Cannock).
In a shake-up of the sector last year, Maersk then sold its multimodal business Roadways Container Logistics.
The source says: "Roadways took 12 months to sell. This could take 12 months at least. A lot of these things go on for a long while.
"This industry is on its knees," the source continues. "The shipping lines have borrowed so much money. All that borrowing, it's like the state of the country, there's so much debt. Sooner or later, it has to be repaid."
A statement from Maersk says: "Similar to any large company, we continuously review our shareholding portfolio. This is an ongoing process as we strive to act in the best interests of our shareholders, and it is not affecting present operations of any of our businesses."