Leading freight forwarding group Kühne & Nagel is interested in acquiring loss-making Frenchparcels and cargo company Sernam, according to a recent report in Les Echos newspaper.
The Swiss-based group wants to build up a land transport network in France and has held talksto take over the former SNCF parcels subsidiary, which was sold to private investor Butler CapitalPartners at the start of 2007. Sernam has a network of 50 depots across France.
According to Les Echos, KN would take over the 48.2% stake held by managing director PhilippeChevalier, while Butler Capital Partners would retain its 51.8% majority holding.
Sernam succeeded in reducing its losses last year to EUR 13 million from EUR 23 million in2006 on revenues of EUR 368 million. The newspaper cited a source as saying the company is nowvirtually debt-free, and was expected to break even this year and move into profit in 2009.
Kühne & Nagel declined to comment on the report, which it described as a “rumour”. ButLes Echos pointed out that the Swiss group was known to want to extend its European land transportnetwork.
