A.P. Moller Maersk A/S agreed to by a Danish project logistic company as the transport giant spends some of its windfall from surging container rates to expand its land-based operations.
Maersk will pay $61 million in enterprise value for Martin Bencher Group, the Copenhagen-based company said in a statement on Friday. Maersk said it’s paying a multiple of 7.1 times estimated 2021 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the firm.
Maersk, which controls about one-sixth of the world’s container trade, earlier this week raised its 2022 profit forecast to a record $31 billion as bottlenecks in key trade lanes continue to boost rates. The company is pursuing a strategy to build out its land-based logistic — where profit margins historically have been higher than at sea — through takeovers and organic growth.
Martin Bencher is an asset-light company specializing in project logistics, a product Maersk will offer clients on a broader scale after the acquisition. It has 29 offices in 22 countries and 170 employees.
The deal follows a number of takeovers over the past year. In February, Maersk bought a trucking firm for $1.68 billion and in December it acquired a warehouse specialist for $3.6 billion.
