Eimskip buys majority stake in Danish logistics company SHIP-LOG

Iceland based Eimskip has continued its international expansion path with the acquisition of a majority share in SHIP-LOG, a freight forwarding company located in Aarhus, Denmark. 

Months after picking up Belgium based Mareco (acquisition of 80% of the shares) and US based CSI Group (51% stake), Eimskip has closed its third deal of 2017. The bolt on of SHIP-LOG strengthens the firm’s market share in the segment of logistics services for refrigerated cargo – a fast growing industry globally on the back of increasing food trade and the rise of the middle class in large emerging economies, among others. SHIP-LOG serves both import and export customers through a network of representative offices in more than 120 countries, generating an annual revenue of about €17 million, and holds strong positions in particularly the food and pharmaceutical industries. 

As part of the integration, 32 employees of SHIP-LOG will transfer to Eimskip, with 25% of the shares remaining in the hands of the current management team. The company will continue to operate independently from its base Aarhus. The deal sees Eimskip, which was founded in 1914 and is a publicly traded company in Iceland, grow its headcount beyond 1,700 FTE’s globally, across on the ground operations in 20 countries.

Gylfi Sigfússon, President and CEO of Eimskip, said the purchase will further strengthen the firm’s logistics services with new customers and volumes, as well as a wider scope, stating “The valuable experience of SHIP-LOG’s management and employees will help us to further strengthen our operation in Denmark and the worldwide forwarding operation.” Main offerings that will be bolstered include supply chain management, freight, inventory management and manufacturing optimisation, for sea freight, air freight, road transportation and courier services.

Throughout the deal process, Sigfússon and the firm’s M&A team were supported by advisors from Baker Tilly, building on a long standing relationship between the two companies. In 2015 the Dutch wing of the global accounting and consulting group advised on the acquisition of Jac. Meisner, a reefer logistics based in the Netherlands, and last year the firm served as buy-side advisor for the purchase of Extraco, another freight forwarding and reefer logistics services provider based in Rotterdam. 

For the SHIP-LOG transaction, Eimskip once again turned to the corporate finance, transaction support and legal arms of Baker Tilly, with resourcing provided from the firm’s offices in the Netherlands (‘Baker Tilly Berk’) and Denmark ('Baker Tilly Denmark’).

“We are very excited to become a part of the Eimskip group as we believe that we can bring knowledge and expertise to the group”, commented Simon Steenholt and Mads Dalsgaard, CEO and Partner at SHIP-LOG. They added that they see significant expansion potential through leveraging synergies in their respective business models: “In the past, Eimskip and SHIP-LOG have been focusing on different commodities and we foresee that both companies will benefit from each other’s experience in growing into new markets and commodities. Being a part of Eimskip enables SHIP-LOG to continue the positive growth through significant mutual synergies.”