COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark’s DSV, the world’s third-largest transport and logistics company, said on Friday it had agreed to acquire Schenker, the logistics arm of German state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn.

The deal, valued at 14.3 billion euros, could make the Danish group the world’s largest freight forwarder.

“The acquisition of Schenker is a transformative transaction for DSV, creating a leading player in the global transportation and logistics industry,” the logistics company said in a statement.

DSV has already announced that it plans to invest around one billion euros in Germany over the next three to five years.

DSV’s acquisition of Schenker, the most expensive for a Danish company to date, is expected to propel it above Swiss giant Kuehne und Nagel in terms of volume and revenue, making it the world’s largest freight forwarder, according to brokerage Sydbank.

DSV, which began operations in 1976 as a group of ten truckers, said the commercial and operational fit between the two groups would contribute to growth, job creation and high financial returns.

The combined group will have sales of 293 billion Danish crowns (39.26 billion euros) based on 2023 financial data and a joint workforce of around 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, DSV said.

“This is the largest transaction in DB’s history (…). It was important to us to find a strong partner for Schenker and a long-term home for the company’s employees,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in the statement.

DSV has grown rapidly through a series of successful acquisitions – some larger than the company itself – in a highly fragmented logistics market.

Schenker, which has been the main profit driver of the Deutsche Bahn group in recent years, employs more than 70,000 people in some 130 countries worldwide, including around 15,000 in Germany.

(1 Danish krone = 0.1340 euro)

(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen, Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, by Florence Loève, edited by Sophie Louet)

Copyright © 2024 Thomson Reuters