FT: Maersk close to acquisitions to bulk up land-based logistics

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The Financial Times writes:

AP Moller-Maersk is getting close to making a number of acquisitions to bulk up its land-based logistics business after the world’s largest container shipping group strengthened its balance sheet.

“The Danish group transports one-fifth of all seaborne freight but sells land-based logistic products to fewer than 20 per cent of its ocean customers, according to chief executive Soren Skou. “We need to accelerate the land side, we need to grow it, we need to make some bolt-on acquisitions . . . We are getting much closer to the point where it starts to make sense,” Mr Skou told the Financial Times.  Maersk has undergone one of the biggest transformations in European industry in recent years, jettisoning its oil and other energy businesses to focus purely on Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping group, as well as its port terminals and logistics units.

Mr Skou added that it had been difficult finding the right companies in land logistics as Maersk did not want to gain too much forwarding business — which involves coordinating different types of freight carriers — as that was often its customers’ business. 

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