News / Acquisition-hungry JAS Worldwide buys Geopost forwarding subsidiary Tigers

Tigers' Thurrock facility

US-based JAS Worldwide has announced an all-share purchase agreement with France’s Geopost to acquire its Tigers freight forwarding subsidiary.

Rumours had been circulating among transport and logistics M&A folk for a number of months that the Atlanta-headquartered forwarder was on an acquisition spree, and today’s news follows the acquisition of Brazilian forwarder Sonave Logistica.

However, this deal is far larger: founded in Hong Kong in 2011, Tigers has developed a suite of tech-enabled integrated logistics services, from freight forwarding to omni-channel supply chain management, including its pioneering SmartHub:Connect visibility platform.

Tigers operates 70 offices in 10 countries, as well as 32 state-of-the-art omni-channel distribution hubs, and employs 935 staff.

JAS Worldwide CEO Marco Rebuffi said: “JAS is broadening its range of logistics services, adding omni-channel supply chain management capabilities, supported by advanced digital solutions, to help our customers ramp up their B2C e-commerce operations.”

Olivier Storch, Geopost executive VP for Asia Pacific & Americas, added: “Tigers has delivered an impressive growth on the back of booming e-commerce. With its global footprint and vast experience in solving the logistics challenges of its customers, JAS is the ideal partner to bring Tigers to the next step in its successful journey.”

The deal value remains undisclosed, although Geopost parent La Poste’s half-year results in 2020 provide some insight into Tigers’ finances: “The business activity of Tigers, in a highly competitive sea freight market, saw operating revenue of €128m ($155m), an organic decrease of 1.2%, due to the economic slowdown following the Covid-19 crisis.”

This suggests Tigers’ annual revenue is around €250m and, applying a take-out multiple of 0.5-1x trailing revenue, which Premium thinks is reasonable, the deal could be in the €125m-€250m enterprise value range.