[101016.EN.BIZ] DSV Plans More Big Acquisitions After UTi Integration

THE CEO of European freight forwarding, logistics, and road freight group DSV, Jens Bjorn Andersen, has said that the company looks to make further large acquisitions once it has completed the integration of the UTi business it acquired in January.

Mr Andersen revealed told Reuters that new acquisitions would only come once DSV had proven the success of the UTi deal, despite what he described as weekly calls from investment bankers touting potential new assets.

DSV has grown to became the world's fifth largest freight transport company by buying up competitors, including the US$1.35 billion acquisition of loss-making UTi this year and the $1.2 billion purchase of ABX Logistics in 2008.

"We've come to realise that bigger acquisitions probably suit us better than smaller ones," he told Reuters. "We will go for the big ones, if we can find them and convince the owners."

The company's simple corporate structure and success in turning around loss-making firms has helped to boost its shares by 25 per cent this year, Reuters noted.

DSV's senior management team consists only of the CEO and a chief financial officer, with the company's decentralised structure giving lots of freedom to country chiefs to pursue new business opportunities, while also setting clear financial targets, it added.

The UTi deal, DSV's biggest yet, doubled the number of its employees to 44,000, propelling it into competition with the likes of DHL and Kuehne + Nagel.

Source : HKSG.