United Parcel Service might be ready to make a takeover bid for a large European logisticscompany.
The US parcels giant did not “rule out” such a hostile deal, chairman and chief executiveMike Eskew told Britain’s Daily Telegraph. “If we think it helps and the customers need it, wewould,” he was quoted as saying. Eskew made no specific comment on whether UPS might make acounter-bid for Exel to try to upstage Deutsche Post World Net. But sources indicated mediaspeculation about a possible UPS bid for Exel was “overblown”.
Meanwhile, German daily Die Welt quoted Kurt Kuehn, UPS global head of sales and marketing, assaying that a bid for Dutch mail, express and logistics group TNT was “a possibility” that UPS was “ looking into”. Eskew told the newspaper that UPS planned to make acquisitions in the Europeanpostal sector. David Abney, head of UPS’ international business, said that the CEP firm also aimedto grow more strongly in Japan, albeit not through acquisitions. UPS has about $5 billion of cashavailable for acquisitions.
