Kuehne+Nagel CEO: US acquisition IMC significantly strengthens seafreight business
Published: Thursday, Nov 14th 2024, 13:00
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With the announced majority takeover of the US logistics company IMC, Kuehne+Nagel intends to significantly expand its seafreight business in North America. "We are thus expanding the value chain and supply chain security for our sea freight customers," said CEO Stefan Paul in an interview with the news agency AWP on Thursday morning.
The US market for so-called container intermodal transportation has a total volume of around 26 billion Swiss francs, explained the manager. Kuehne+Nagel already has a turnover of several hundred million Swiss francs in this area. With the takeover of IMC Logistics, which transports around 2 million containers a year, the range of services for customers could now be significantly expanded.
The integration is also expected to increase profitability. Specifically, Paul expects noticeable synergy effects after the integration of the IMC volumes: "The profit per container unit will increase by 5 to 10 percent when extrapolated to the entire seafreight division of Kuehne+Nagel," he said.
IMC, the largest private provider in this area according to Paul, will continue to be led by the existing management team. "We want to take the owner Mark George with us and continue to expand the business together with the team," said the Kühne CEO. Accordingly, there are currently no plans to increase the stake in the US logistics company any time soon. According to the announcement on Thursday morning, the Swiss company is taking over 51 percent of IMC.
The US business with rail and road transportation is unique due to the size of the country, Paul also emphasized. There are therefore no plans to expand the intermodal business in other regions in this form, although it naturally also plays an important role in Europe.
Finally, the manager was also confident about the economic outlook in the US. As in Donald Trump's first term in office, US consumers are likely to remain willing to spend and invest. "This will support the import of goods from other countries and therefore also our business." At best, fewer goods will be imported from China, but more from other countries.
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