Merger and Acquisition

The flurry of buyouts and consolidation in the ocean cargo arena has shippers scrambling to book space and reconfigure supply chains this season. Meanwhile, logistics managers must make sense of new rumors that yet another major player may be for sale.

In a move geared towards expanding its truckload brokerage operations in the United Kingdom and Europe, global transportation and logistics bellwether UPS has acquired U.K.-based Freightex, a provider of truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL), specialized, and refrigerated over-the-road services.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the transportation and logistics sector in the fourth quarter of 2013 fared well, posting the second highest quarterly deal volume and value in the last three years, even though 2013 overall deal volume and value did not fare nearly as well, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ (PwC) report, “Intersections: Fourth Quarter 2013 global transportation and logistics industry mergers and acquisitions analysis.”

Third quarter deal value—for deals valued at $50 million or more—was $10.2 billion and represents 40 announced deals compared to the second quarter, which had 37 deals totaling $16.3 billion.

In the first few days of the fourth quarter, there were several trucking M&A-related developments.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the transportation and logistics sectors in the second quarter was up slightly on an annual basis, according to data released this week by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Fourth quarter 2012 merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the transportation and logistics sectors was at its highest level in three years, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ (PwC) report “Intersections: Fourth Quarter 2012 global transportation and logistics industry mergers and acquisitions analysis.”

In its recently released report, “Intersections: Third Quarter 2012 global transportation and logistics industry mergers and acquisitions analysis,” Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) reported that even with a difficult global economy, transportation and logistics activity in the third quarter was strong.

Transportation and logistics merger & acquisition deal activity in the second quarter continued the solid momentum seen in the first quarter and also was in line with deal making activity from the same quarter last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) quarterly report, entitled “Intersections: Second Quarter 2012 global transportation and logistics industry mergers and acquisitions analysis.”

Now, more than ever in the transportation and logistics sectors, a healthy amount of merger & acquisition deal activity is taking place. Companies are making acquisitions based on need or getting into a segment of the business they may not already have a presence in through acquisition.

First quarter deal value—for deals valued at $50 million or more—was $22.6 billion and represents 34 announced deals with an average deal value of $700 million.

The Cudahy, Wisconsin-based company announced this week it has acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Clearwater, Minnesota-based D&E Transport, an asset-light flatbed carrier focused on food and agricultural products. D&E is located 40 miles from the Twin Cities.

Fourth quarter transportation and logistics merger & acquisition activity was not as strong as it was in the third quarter, but the end results were mostly impressive, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Following the first half of 2011, which showed some signs of increasing transportation and logistics merger & acquisition activity, third quarter activity took a bit of a step back, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) quarterly report “Intersections: Second Quarter 2011 global transportation and logistics industry mergers and acquisitions analysis.”

For the second quarter, PwC reported that second quarter deal value was $13.5 billion compared to $18.4 billion for the same period in 2010 and is up about 30 percent from the first quarter’s $10.4 billion in total deal value.