Danish shipping giant DFDS recently signed an agreement to acquire Ekol Logistics, a Turkish company that focusses on transporting goods between Europe and Türkiye. With this initiative, DFDS is adding road transport to its Mediterranean ferry network.
According to DFDS, transport between Türkiye and Europe should grow by 14 per cent every year until 2028, especially thanks to nearshoring projects. The price of the sale was set at 260 million euros, with approval expected for Q4 2024, pending compliance with the EU merger control. For its part, the Turkish Competition Authority already approved the merger in July 2023.
Ekol Logistics closed 2023 with a revenue of 470 million euros, DFDS mentioned. Their EBIT-margin for 2023 was 4,8 per cent lower than in 2022. One of the plans of this new merger is to bring EBIT-margin back to roughly 5 per cent by 2027.