Tiny has big ideas
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BRITISH businessman "Tiny" Rowland wants to go into the transport business in a big way. His company Lonrho is involved in talks on buying a stake in West Germany's biggest private transport firm Kuehne and Nagel.
It is possible that Lonrho will buy about 50 per cent of the Kuehne and Nagel shares. The German company faces financial problems and the type of the deal is put at more than 100m DM (about f22m).
The German airline Lufthansa is also in the running as well as two rival transport firms, Schenker and Rhenus — WTAG.
Founded in 1890, as a twoman firm, Kuehne and Nagel now employs more than 8,000 people in 130 subsidiaries around the world.
The firm ran into difficulties when Klaus Michael Kuehne, grandson of one of the founders, branched into shipping. But shipping rates dropped and the venture ended with a substantial deficit which must now be paid as soon as possible (CM, February 28).