Deutsche Bahn to buy BAX Global
Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned railway company, is preparing to acquire BAX Global, the U.S. freight forwarder, in a bid to catch up with the consolidation sweeping the global logistics industry. Europe’s biggest railway operator is likely to pay between $960 million and $1.2 billion for Irvine, Calif.-based BAX, a unit of the Brink’s Co., a security and logistics company. Deutsche Bahn will decide whether to proceed with the acquisition at an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on Saturday, according to German press reports. Deutsche Bahn is expected to fold BAX into Schenker, its freight forwarding unit that has been under pressure to match recent takeovers by rivals, most recently Deutsche Post’s $6.7 billion acquisition of Exel, the UK’s largest ocean and air freight forwarder and contract logistics company, and Swiss-based Kuehne & Nagel’s $588 million acquisition of Paris-based ACR Logistics from Platinum Equity Group, a private U.S. investors group. BAX last week reported an increase in third-quarter operating profit to $22.2 million from $14.6 million a year earlier, while revenue rose 20 percent to $738 million. Brinks was reported to have put BAX Global up for sale in June.
