French express and logistics operator Geodis raised EUR 158.75 million for an issue of new sharesto help finance the EUR 400 million purchase of TNT’s freight management business.
The issue of over 1.3 million new shares on Wednesday was two-and-half times oversubscribed,according to business information provider All Data Processing. It takes Geodis’ total number ofshares to over 7.6 million.
Geodis has bought the TNT division to grow its international freight forwarding business. Thedeal was wrapped up earlier this month, financed by a loan and the rights issue.
The French company said the acquisition would double its revenue from freight forwarding toabout EUR 1.6 billion, which will be more than one third of its group revenues.
The enlarged Geodis group will have revenue of EUR 4.4 billion, based on 2005 figures, willbe among the top five freight forwarders in Europe and among the top 10 globally.
