XPO Logistics on track for acquisitions in 2018 - Lloyd s Loading List

Lloyd's Loading List. Search our news archive. XPO Logistics on track for acquisitions in 2018. Stuart Todd | вторник, 08 мая 2018. European targets are on the agenda, as the group looks to replicate the success of its US B2C last-mile delivery service for heavy consumer goods. XPO Logistics is on track to announce an acquisition in 2018 and it could be in Europe, where the transportation and logistics giant is looking to replicate the success of its US business-to-consumer (B2C) last-mile delivery service for heavy consumer goods. Unveiled at the end of last year, these operations now extend to five European countries − the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Evidence of how much of a priority XPO views its development in this segment, it has deployed members of its North American last-mile team to Europe to share best practices. Asked last week at an investor conference call about XPO Logistics’ expansion plans in last-mile in Europe and whether it would be organic or through acquisition, chairman and CEO, Brad Jacobs, replied: “Last mile in Europe is up and running in a handful of countries right now, and we’re going to keep growing that because there’s a lot of demand for it. So that’s a big organic push. We haven’t bought anybody in last mile in Europe. There aren’t a whole lot of last mile companies to buy in Europe.” He added: “By the way, there were not a whole lot of last mile companies to buy in North America. We bought the biggest one, 3PD, and then we bought ACL, and UX, and Optima, and we fully integrated them into one platform. “And once we got scale, once we got density, we were able to crack the nut of last mile. It's a tricky, tricky business. And in Europe, that’s our main dilemma, how do we quickly get up to the scale that we need in order to get the density, in order to get the cost structure that allows us to give extremely high levels of customer satisfaction and make a decent profit on it as well?” Commenting on XPO Logistics’ acquisition plans in general, Jacobs said these were progressing as expected and as originally outlined last year. “We announced we wanted to do M&A in a very methodical, disciplined way, the same way we did it from 2011 till 2015. We wanted to cast a wide net, speak to lots of potential acquisition targets, and then funnel it down to a smaller and smaller amount, and then end up selecting the one that’s the most accretive and most valuable for our shareholders and our customers. “And we said the base case scenario is that we would have a big acquisition, or two medium-sized acquisitions announced by the end of this year, and we’re very much on track for that. That could be three weeks from now. That could be three months from now. That could be December (2018). But the base case scenario is this year.” Global companies, headquartered in North America or Western Europe, with service lines close to those currently offered by XPO, were the preferred targets, he added.