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There is no respite for marriages between shippers, to put it more soberly – as the groom, and logisticians, as the bought bride – or for vertical integration. Now Noatum, a recently-acquired subsidiary of AD Ports, has made a move in Spain’s automotive logistics field. This could be significant for automobiles.
Running logistics activities that involve fully-equipped vehicles is an attractive segment. Since July this year, Spain’s Noatum Group, a subsidiary of the AD Ports Group is buying the finished vehicles logistics activities (FVL) from Spain’s Grupo Logístico Sesé. The deal is due to be completed in Q1 / 2024, subject to regulatory approval while the purchase price amounts to EUR 81 million.
Reporting sales of EUR 510 million (+25% year-on-year) In H1 / 2023 the Zaragoza-based Sesé Group achieved its best half-year result to date, and an operating profit (ebitda) of EUR 27 million.
Sesé Auto Logistics is active in rail and road logistics, supplying OEMs such as Stellantis, Mazda, Daimler, Renault, BMW, PSA and MAN, and operating from Poland, Czechia, Spain, Germany, and Hungary with its fleet of no less than approximately 200 trucks.
Noatum has cut itself a nice slice of the pie. The acquisition implies a trailing enterprise value / ebitda of approximately 3.5x, based on the company’s performance in the trailing twelve months to August 2023, which saw revenues of approximately EUR 100 million and an ebitda margin of 22.5%.
The Noatum Automotive brand will offer, according to its statement “comprehensive vertical solutions for the automotive industry, covering the entire logistics value chain from transport to distribution to the final delivery of vehicles to customers.” Synergies with Noatum’s terminal business in Spain are a prerequisite.
The FVL market in Europe is estimated to be worth around EUR 3 billion a year, with an annual growth rate of 6 percent predicted for the medium term. According to the latest data from S & P Global, a data partner of the Association of European Vehicle Logistics (ECG), total annual passenger car sales in Europe are expected to reach approximately 16.3 million units in 2023, and are even expected to increase to approximately 18.9 million units a year by 2035.
