Railway hopes for a windfall
More than 20 interested parties for DB subsidiary Schenker
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Deutsche Bahn is burdened by a massive mountain of debt – the sale of its logistics subsidiary Schenker is intended to provide relief. Interest in the profitable company is greater than expected.
According to a report in the “Handelsblatt”, interest in the railway logistics subsidiary Schenker, which is up for sale, is greater than expected. More than 20 potential bidders expressed their interest in a takeover in a first round last week, the newspaper reported, citing investor and supervisory board circles. Deutsche Bahn (DB) started the sales process shortly before Christmas.
According to the report, the possible bidders include the shipping company Maersk and the logistics group DSV from Denmark, the shipping company MSC, an alliance of the private equity funds CVC and Carlyle, and a consortium of the Saudi Arabian logistics company Bahri, the major French bank Société Générale and Clifford Chance. According to investor circles, the investment companies Advent and Bain also wanted to bid, the newspaper reported. The German DHL Group and Kühne and Nagel from Switzerland are also said to have expressed their interest.
In view of the great interest, there is growing hope that a price at the top of expectations can be achieved for the railway subsidiary, wrote the “Handelsblatt”. Schenker could be valued at 10 to 15 billion euros, the newspaper quoted investors and supervisory board circles as saying. How high the final sales price will be, however, is still uncertain. The proceeds from the sale are to go entirely to the railway and will largely reduce its debts. DB is heavily indebted to over 30 billion euros.
With around 76,600 employees at over 1,850 locations in more than 130 countries, Schenker is one of the world's leading logistics service providers. The company is the group's profit maker. In 2022, Schenker achieved a record profit of 1.8 billion euros before taxes and interest. In the first half of 2023, operating profit amounted to 626 million euros. In contrast to its logistics subsidiary DB Cargo, Schenker specializes in road transport and also offers international air and sea freight transport.
