Panalpina ponders over IPO
Panalpina, the global forwarding and logistics group, is weighing a public offering of its stock sometime in the next several years. (5/9/2002)
Gerhard Fischer, the company’s chairman, revealed that possible public offering at the Basel, Switzerland-based company’s annual meeting last week.
Panalpina is owned by the Ernst Gohner Foundation, a Swiss social and cultural organization.
Martin Spohn, a spokesman for Panalpina, said that the public offering would be discussed in June at a shareholder meeting, at which time details such as how many shares to sell would be discussed.
“The company has grown considerably in recent years,” noted Spohn. A public float might give the company a wider financial base and also provide the company with some additional publicity, he said.
Meanwhile, Panalpina reported that it had “outstanding results for financial year 2001.” The company saw net income increase 20.5% to SF111.7 million ($70 million) on virtually unchanged net revenue of $3.37 billion. The company attributed the results to “centralized capacity purchasing and management through the inhouse carriers ASB-Air and ASB-Sea, coupled with rigorous cost management throughout the organization.”
“Global demand for airfreight declined and in some cases shifted to the ocean sector. Panalpina’s performance in this area was above the market average, however, and the Group was able to consolidate its competitive edge. At the beginning of the year a new cargo terminal was opened at Huntsville, Alabama.”
The company noted it entered into a strategic alliance with the U.S.-based transport company AIT in order to upgrade its door-to-door services. It said “the cooperation is also a milestone in the expansion of the Group’s time-definite offering.”
The company said its “significant growth in sea freight, which took the volume of freight shipped to 550,000 TEUs, can be ascribed mainly to continuing growth in volumes on routes between Asia and Europe.”
Panalpina has over 300 branches in 74 countries, and employs around 12,000 people worldwide.
