Tag: Sernam

Loss-making French express parcels carrier Sernam has sold a majority stake to Paris-based financial investor Butler Capital Partners, the proceeds from which the former SNCF subsidiary says will help expand its services and network.

Butler has taken 51.8 pct of the Sernam holding company, reportedly for EUR 10.7 million, to add to its diverse investments which include the SNCM ferry company, Paris Saint-German football club and mushroom producer France Champignon.

“The entry of a reference shareholder alongside the management team will allow (us) to accelerate the development of the group in key areas, such as the quality of service offered to the group’s clients and strengthening of the network,” Sernam said in a statement.

Butler will hold the majority on the supervisory board, while the management team will continue to be led by Philippe Chevalier, who led Sernam’s management buy-out from SNCF in 2005, the company said.

Sernam, which is one of France’s largest express parcels operators with around 4.5 pct market share, has 2,100 employees and last year registered a loss of EUR 22 million on revenues of EUR 350 million, according to La Tribune newspaper.

Sernam has switched the bulk of its long-distance traffic from road to rail in order to avoid being hit by tighter motorway speed limits for light trucks from next January. It has also bought a small regional trucking company.

With effect from January 1, 2007, the maximum speed limit in France for goods vehicles weighing 3.5 tonnes or more will be reduced from 110 km/h to 90 km/h. This speed limit currently applies to vehicles of 12 tonnes or more. The 18% reduction in speed, along with obligatory rest times for drivers, means, for example, that the Paris-Niort truck journey will in future take 5 hours, 45 minutes on average, compared to 4 hours, 20 minutes at present, Sernam pointed out.

In response to this operational restriction, Sernam said that it has re-designed its nationwide transportation network in order to ensure it can maintain the present transit times for its customers. The company provides next-day afternoon deliveries across virtually of all France.

With effect from mid-October, Sernam is now carrying the bulk of its long-distance volumes on the night-time Train Blocs Express (TBE), freight TGV operating at speeds of up to 200 km/h on key North-South routes. The operator’s network is based on nine hubs, including new multimodal platforms at Toulouse and Bordeaux. A new Paris hub will open at Valenton at end-2007.

Meanwhile, Sernam also announced that it has acquired a small trucking company, Coulonge, based at Limoges in south-west France, which had revenues of €4.5 million in 2005.