More than 20 parties interested in buying DB Schenker
22 / 03 / 2024
Photo: DB Schenker
Deutsche Bahn (DB) yesterday provided an update on its plan to sell DB Schenker during the announcement of its full-year results, which showed the forwarder delivered a “reliable” profit performance.
Levin Holle, member of the board responsible for finance and DB Schenker, said that more than 20 parties had registered an interest in purchasing the forwarder after DB launched a bidding process earlier this year, reports Air Cargo News sister title DVZ.
Holle said that the bidders could submit their first offers in the next few days and that a decision as to buyer could be made in the second half of the year.
However, he ruled out any chance of the transaction being completed this year.
“We have been very pleased with the general market interest in our attractive logistics subsidiary,” DB said. “The rest of the process will be confidential, as is customary. We will only sell if it makes financial sense to do so.”
DB confirmed that its subsidiary DB Schenker was officially up for sale in December, a year after it began reviewing its options for the sale.
Interested parties had until January 15 to ask for extra information and until February 6 to submit their registration documents.
Most recently, shipping giant AP Moller Maersk said it would consider making an offer after previously dismissing the idea.
Other companies rumoured to be interested include MSC, DSV, UPS, DP World and Abu Dhabi Ports.
However, DHL Group has declared itself out of the running for acquiring DB Schenker following much speculation over which company will buy the freight forwarder.
Full-year results
DB Schenker reported lower volumes, revenues and operating profits last year – a reflection of overall market conditions.
The forwarder’s airfreight volumes for the year declined by 13.4% year on year to 1.2m tonnes, revenues were down 30.7% to €19.1bn and adjusted earnings before interest and tax (ebit) was down 38.7% to €1.1bn.
The company said that while operating profit had fallen last year, it was still twice as high as it was pre-Covid and revenues were also above pre-Covid levels.
“DB Schenker has delivered an extraordinarily high contribution to Group profits for years,” the company said of the performance. “During the Covid pandemic, markets were in a special situation, with global transport capacity in short supply and rates for air and ocean freight extremely high.
“DB Schenker achieved the best performance in its history over this period. We now know from 2023 that even with normalised global freight rates, DB Schenker remains a reliable profit contributor, with profits we can be very happy with and good prospects for the future.”
The company highlighted growing e-commerce volumes as the year progressed.
“The effects of global geopolitical and financial policy uncertainties were also noticeable in demand for airfreight transport,” the company said. “As a result, 2023 was characterised by significant weakness in the airfreight market.
“2023 started very weakly and the summer months did not bring any noticeable recovery. In the second half of the year, however, business in particular with perishable and low-priced e-commerce goods from Asia rose sharply.
“Due to the very dynamic increase in the e-commerce business, the available air freight capacity in the last months of 2023 was concentrated on a few connections to and from Asia.
“Overall, this led to a regional imbalance in terms of available capacity with correspondingly volatile developments in freight rates and earnings in the airfreight market.”
For comparission, Kuehne+Nagel saw its 2023 air cargo volumes decline 11.2% year on year to 2m tonnes and DHL Global Forwarding’s air volumes were down 12.1% to 1.4m tons.
DB Schenker sale process underway as firm is officially on the market
