Interested buyers include the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, the Saudi Arabian logistics group Bahri, the Danish transport and logistics service provider DSV, the container ship shipping company Maersk, and a consortium of financial investors Carlyle and CVC, according to the Börsen-Zeitung.
Unnamed sources told the US news agency Bloomberg that the financial investors, CVC Capital Partners Plc and Carlyle Group Inc., have submitted an offer valuing the company at around 14 billion euros. These firms are also said to have held talks with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Singaporean wealth fund GIC Pte.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are managing the sales process. Industry sources estimate the purchase price to be between 12 and 15 billion euros. However, it’s believed a competitor of Schenker might be willing to pay a slight premium compared to a financial investor.
The state-owned Deutsche Bahn is selling Schenker to focus on its core railway business in Germany and reduce its debt of over 30 billion euros.