Merger of two complementary networks to empower further growth of the International Freight Forwarding Business
Greven, 21.12.2020. Fiege has reached an agreement with AIT Worldwide Logistics to sell the legal entities within the Business Unit International Freight Forwarding (IFF) as well as the Forwarding Business in Far East. Closing of the transaction is anticipated on December 29th, 2020.
“We are very enthusiastic about the deal, as the transaction enables the merger of two extremely complementary networks, that will empower the previous IFF business to grow even further and opens extended services with an even larger network to our customers”, says Felix Fiege, CEO of Fiege Group.
Fiege IFF has proven its high-performance capability within the past years. In addition to the high-quality service for existing customers, the recent COVID crisis and emergency logistics have proven the scalability of Fiege IFF organization. To enable the IFF business to exploit further potential, the necessity of a substantial growth of the own network has become very clear. Therefore, Fiege was looking for a strong partner for substantial investments either via joint venture or by divesting the IFF activities into a bigger strategic alliance.
Michael Völlnagel, CEO of Fiege IFF supports the transaction with regard to future business opportunities: “With AIT we found a partner that combines a large network, particularly in the North American and Asian regions with the clear strategy to further expand business with focus on culture and people. Our global footprints and service offerings are extremely complementary and most importantly we already have very successfully worked together over many years”.
Fiege and AIT concurred on a strategic alliance beyond the agency agreement that is already in place for years, which will enable both parties to work more closely together in the future and leverage from each other’s businesses for the benefit of their customers. With this agreement Fiege is going to focus on its core business in contract logistics, such as warehousing, fulfillment and road transportation to tackle the upcoming opportunities of digitization and automatization as well as a strong growth path in the e-commerce sector. Despite the sale of the IFF business in Far East, Fiege will maintain its global presence with its contract logistics business in Asia and is going to invest into further growth globally. AIT President and CEO, Vaughn Moore said, “We couldn’t be more delighted to welcome the experts from Fiege Forwarding as our newest AIT teammates. The long-running mutual partnership between our two teams has created a solid foundation of trust that helped finalize the deal.”
The M&A advisors of GCA Altium and KPMG Germany as well as the legal advisors Görg contributed to the successful conclusion of the contract.
