XPO’s completes acquisition of Norbert Dentressangle SA

Following its April announcement that it planned to acquire Lyon, France-based 3PL Norbert Dentressangle SA for $3.53 billion, non asset-based 3PL XPO Logistics said yesterday that the acquisition has been made official.

Norbert Dentressangle is one of the largest 3PLs in the world, focusing on contract logistics (including e-commerce fulfillment), freight brokerage and transportation, and global forwarding services. It has 662 locations, roughly 42,350 employees and has a “blue chip” customer base comprised of some of the largest global shippers. It serves shippers in the retail, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, agriculture, and e-commerce sectors, with its largest customer accounting for less than 4 percent of total revenue. The company had $5.5 billion in revenue for the year-ended December 31, 2014.

Norbert Dentressangle will provide XPO with access to the largest fleet network in Europe, which is made up of 7,700 owned trucks, 3,200 trucks contracted through owner-operators, as well as access to 12,000 independent carriers, with XPO gaining lane density for about 90 percent of the Eurozone’s GDP-producing regions, added XPO.

When the deal was first announced in April, XPO cited various benefits of bringing Norbert Dentressangle into the fold, including:
-becoming a top ten worldwide logistics company and leading European outsourced e-fulfillment provider;
-more than tripling its EBITDA run rate to roughly $544 million and increase its revenue to roughly $8.5 billion, which will help it nearly achieve its 2017 targets two years in advance; and
-the complementary service offerings and geographies enabling cross-selling to an established based on multinational companies

“We’re delighted to welcome the customers, employees and suppliers of Norbert Dentressangle to XPO,” said XPO Chairman and CEO Brad Jacobs in a statement. “This combination is an important step in the continued execution of our growth strategy.”

In an April interview, Jacobs noted that this acquisition provides XPO with the scale to be a global supply chain provider, adding that XPO and Norbert Dentressangle had met several times in recent months, noting that Norbert Dentressangle was intrigued by becoming part of XPO and a global supply chain powerhouse, which led to the deal coming to fruition.

“Their service offerings very closely mirrors XPO’s, the geographies are complementary, and the service offerings are very similar,” he said. “They have industry-leading positions in contract logistics and freight brokerage, which are very important parts of XPO’s business. Their contract logistics business brings in $2.8 billion in annual revenue, and we love contract logistics and view it as one of the most attractive parts of the industry because customers value the significant…non-commoditized nature of it and the relationships with customers that span many years.”

As part of Norbert’s rebranding to become part of XPO Logistics, XPO said Norbert’s red trucks are being repainted to announce “#WeAreXPO,” with those trucks to debut at the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in July in which Norbert has served as the event’s official logistics partner.