ABX Logistics in search of investors
The fate of ABX Logistics see ins to he sealed. Belgian transport minister isahelle Durant has apparently won her dispute with SNCB head Etienne Schouppe, gaining victories on all the major points.
The world’s fifth-largest logistics group — with a workforce of 16.000 in 36 countries — will in future operate as a holding company. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Belgian State Railways SNCB has yet to make a profit.
All in all, more than EUR 600 million have allegedly been poured into the company, which offers logistics, full load, road haulage, airfreight and seafreight services and generates an annual turnover of EUR 2.9 billion.
Apparently, after the bankruptcy of Sabena, the state-owned Belgian airline, the Belgian government under prime minister Guy Verhofstadt was not prepared to risk a second, similar débâcle. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concluded its assessment of ABX Logistics in February this year and provided transport minister Durant with good microeconomic arguments for floating it off as a holding company.
According to the consultanc, ABX Logistics would require an additional investment of EUR 250 million for the management to be in a position to successfully realise its strategic expansion plans and lead the company
back into the black by 2003. ABX Logistics acquired the Dutch logistics services provider Wegtransport in November last year. In contrast to the long wrangle about the fate of Sabena, prime minister Guy Verhofstadt’s inner cabinet came to a rapid decision in this case.
ABX and SNCB to go separate ways
According to the French financial daily <
InterFerryBoats and BCargo are to remain with SNCB. ABX Logistics will no longer be funded from the SNCB budget, with an exception being made in the case of a loan of EUR 50 million which was already approved to facilitate the restructuring of the company. The logistics provider will then be open to private investors.
Apparently, there is no shortage of potential investors, among them Deutsche Bahn AG. The new ABX holding is to consist of two subsidiaries, one of which will be responsible for the shipment of consignments below 30 kg, and the other will be in charge of
all ABX’s other operations. According to SNCB head Schouppe, the new holding will have a capital of EUR 650 million. New investors can acquire a maximum share of 27% (worth EUR 250 million) in the company.
It has not yet been definitely decided whether the Belgian state will retain its majority shareholding. The head of SNCB resisted the government’s plans to sell off ABX for a long time. Schouppe wanted to keep ABX Logistics and fully integrate it in the rest of SNCB in the course of the current restructuring programme, which is to be concluded by 2005. His arguments were persuasive.
Although SNCB generates one of the lowest turnovers of any European railway, it is the only rail operator that has a more or less equal balance between passenger and freight traffic. One reason for this is its geographic proximity to Europe’s most important ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam
and Antwerp. SNCB’s oiderly withdrawal from ABX Logistics will inject some fresh capital into the company and is likely to cause further upheavals in the European transport sector.
On the downside, the decision has put an end to a promising and possibly ground-breaking experiment.
Intermodality: merely lip service?
<(Everyone is talking about intermodality. but when it comes to putting it into practice. the usual merciless competition between road, rail and air transport operators ensues,>> a member of the board of the community of European Railways said recently. To put it another way: The state-owned railways have lost an opportunity to show in one of Europe’s major transport hubs what intermodality could mean in practical terms.
