News / GXO is planning counter offer for Wincanton to see off Ceva

UK contract logistics operator Wincanton has confirmed that rival player GXO is behind a possible counter offer to the already accepted takeover bid from Ceva Logistics.

But it told the London Stock Exchange: “Although GXO has indicated it is considering making a proposal for a cash offer, as of the date of this announcement, it has not provided the board of Wincanton with any formal proposal.

“If any such proposal is provided by GXO, the board of Wincanton will carefully consider its terms, in conjunction with its advisers.”

This morning it was revealed that if GXO is to make a bid for one of its chief competitors in the UK market, it will have to meet a deadline of 5pm on 6 March – a full week before Wincanton shareholders meet to vote on the Ceva offer.

However, it added in a LSE statement today: “This deadline will cease to apply if, before that time, a third party other than GXO has announced a firm intention to make an offer for Wincanton.”

In response to the possibility of a GXO offer, CMA CGM-owned Ceva’s specially formed takeover company, Bidco, yesterday upped its all-cash offer from £764.9m to £802.7m ($1.01bn), in terms of enterprise value.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, a Bidco LSE filing noted that yesterday it received clearance for its takeover offer from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission – the last regulatory hurdle in the quest to significantly expand its UK contract logistics profile.

If no counter offer is made by another party, the deal will proceed once the UK secretary of state has confirmed to the parties that that “no further action will be taken in relation to the acquisition under the NSI Act”.

A recent Loadstar Premium analysis of the deal estimated that a combined Ceva and Wincanton entity would have a 13%-15% share of the UK contract logistics market – last year valued by Transport Intelligence at £18.9bn – with Wincanton currently holding around 11% and Ceva 2% to 4%.

GXO is estimated to hold a market share of 17.5%, suggesting that a combined GXO and Wincanton would be nearing the critical 30% threshold, which may require significantly more work landing on regulators’ desks.

Wincanton’s share price remained unchanged today.