Maritime automobiles
There’s no respite for marriages between shippers, as the groom, and logisticians, as the bought bride – or for vertical integration, to put it more soberly. Now Noatum, a recently-acquired subsidiary of AD Ports, has made a move in Spain’s automotive logistics field.
Running logistics activities that involve fully-equipped vehicles is an attractive segment. Spain’s Noatum Group, a subsidiary of the AD Ports Group since July this year, is buying the finished vehicles logistics activities (FVL) from Spain’s Grupo Logístico Sesé. The purchase price amounts to EUR 81 million. The deal is due to be completed in Q1 / 2024, subject to regulatory approval.
In H1 / 2023 the Zaragoza-based Sesé Group achieved its best half-year result to date, reporting sales of EUR 510 million (+25% year-on-year) and an operating profit (ebitda) of EUR 27 million.
Sesé Auto Logistics is active in road and rail logistics, supplying OEMs such as Renault, Stellantis, Mazda, Daimler, BMW, PSA and MAN, and operating from Spain, Germany, Poland, Czechia 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%.
According to its statement the Noatum Automotive brand will offer “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% 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.