Thiel buys majority of the Birkhart Group

Last week, Thiel AG, based in Grevenmacher (Luxembourg) confirmed that it had acquired the majority of Birkart Glohistics AG’s business divisions. Birkart is headquartered in Aschaffenburg (Bavaria, Germany). The new acquisition will not only enable Thiel AG to break into the fashion logistics sector and expand its activities on the European market, hut also to strengthen its position in Asia, Africa. America and Australia.
In its own words. Thiel AG has acquired selected business segments from Birkart Globistics; the overland transport sector will however remain with Birkart. Under the terms of the agreement,Thiel will take over almost 3(X)0 of Birkart’s total workforce of 3600.

Birkart brand will be retained Thiel’s executives affirmed that the "brand, tradition, the corporate culture>> and Birkart’s existing management will be retained. With the newly acquired divisions. the company expects to generate net sales of about EUR 410 million and an EBIT of EUR 8 to 9 million for 2002. Thiel added that the takeover will be financed one third each by liabilities. cash and the issue of approximately 1.2 million new shares.

Birkart: family firm with a long tradition

Birkart Globistics AG was founded in 1877 and has belonged to the same family for four generations. The company currently generates an annual turnover of about EUR 800 million. Birkart Globistics operates its own branches or is represented by agents on all five continents. Birkart’s service portfolio embraces
overland transportation, sea- and airfreight. groupage services, fashion logistics, contract logistics. c-commerce, exhibition and event logistics, and furniture removals.
Only last year, Birkart was fundamentally rest ruclured. At that stage the firm excluded the possibility of disposals (cf. ITJ 50/2000, p. 11 and l3).The management has now obviously changed its mind.
Thiel Logistik AG has substantially increased its budget projections for the fiscal year 2002 as a result of the recent takeovers. The company is now expecting total sales of EIJR 1.6 billion (cf. previous figure of EUR 1.1 billion) and an EBIT of EUR 109 million. The logistics services provider has also recruited additional membeis to its
board of directors (see also People & Companies, page 7).

Thiel will also take over CAT and AF-Logistik
In addition, Thiel Logistik has announced the takeover of the two other German logistics services providers GAT-Logistik GmbH (Kempten) and AF-Logistik (Kelsterbach, Hessen).
Thiel says that GATLogistik has many years of experience in procurement logistics for renowned companies. from the engineering and the consumer goods industries, for example. The company, which is based in Bavaria, recorded net sales of EUR 13 million last year and currently employs a staff of almost 190.
AF-Logistik provides airfreight services and is to complement the operations of Thiel AS Logistics. AFLogistik (90 employees), ‘which is headquartered near Frankfurt, posted net sales of EU R 6 million in 2001. Thiel announced that the acquisition of AF-Logistik will he financed exclusivelv by the issue of approximately 400 ),000 new shares.

Ley GmbH to be sold

On the other hand, Thiel AG has sold its Ley GmhH subsidiary, headquartered in Pullheim (near Munich, Germany), as part of a restructuring programme in its ITsegment. While Lev GmbH will take over the products (including Cosa Solutions’ product portfoho) and their development, the IT consultants will remain with Thiel Logistik. Thiel thus retains an inhouse IT capability for integrated logistics solutions.