The Danish logistics company DSV has won the bidding war to acquire DB Schenker.
Unnamed sources at Deutsche Bahn and the German government informed Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
A preliminary contract valued at around 14 billion euros is expected to be signed in the coming days.
This equates to just under 105 billion Danish kroner.
The deal could be one of the largest ever in the transport industry, news agency Bloomberg has reported.
If the acquisition goes through, it will also rank as one of the largest in Danish business history.
Becoming a Global Leader
In terms of both revenue and volume, DSV will surpass the Swiss company Kuehne und Nagel and thereby become the world leader in the industry, according to an assessment by Sydbank reported by Reuters.
The sale must be approved by Deutsche Bahn’s board before DSV can complete the purchase. An extraordinary meeting is expected in the coming days to approve the deal. The board includes representatives from the government, parliament members, and union representatives.
Neither DSV nor Deutsche Bahn wished to comment to Reuters.
The other interested party in the bidding war is the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.
There have been demonstrations at several DB Schenker locations on Wednesday, where workers fear layoffs as a result of the possible upcoming acquisition.
Plans to Limit Layoffs
Bloomberg has learned that DSV has promised to limit layoffs to between 1,600 and 1,900 at DB Schenker’s German headquarters.
DB Schenker has over 70,000 employees worldwide, 15,000 of whom are based in Germany.
DSV was founded in 1976 as De Sammensluttede Vognmænd (The United Haulers) and has grown in recent years with acquisitions such as UTI Worldwide in 2016 and Panalpina in 2019. Today, DSV employs over 75,000 people.
Novo Holdings is currently listed for the largest Danish acquisition to date with the purchase of the U.S. company Catalent, which cost 114 billion Danish kroner.
/ritzau/
