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DFDS to acquire Turkish ro ro giant
[ April 12, 2018 // Chris ]DFDS is to acquire Turkey’s largest freight ferry operator, UN Ro-Ro, subject to regulatory approval, giving it a significant presence in the Mediterranean for the first time.
Danish shipping and logistics group will buy 98.8 % of the shares in the shipping company from Turkish private equity companies Actera and Esas for €950 million.
UN Ro Ro currently has five routes connecting Italy and France with Turkey, 12 ships and operates its own terminals in Trieste and Pendik, Istanbul. It also serves Toulon in France, Bari Italy), Patras (Greece) and Mersin and Ambarli in Turkey.
DFDS’s current sole route in the region is between France and Tunisia.
UN Ro Ro also operates intermodal rail links between its ports and key inland destinations.
DFDS chief executive and president Niels Smedegaard said the new acquisition’s operations – ro ro ships, port terminals handling a high number of unaccompanied trailer units and containers for reloading to rail – were “very similar to DFDS’ business in the North Sea”, adding: “So are the goods transported – machinery, automotive parts, vehicles, electronics, computers, plastic products, textiles, clothing, food, fruit, beverages and others.”
Many of the trailers and containers transported between manufacturers and their customers via France and Italy will be using DFDS’ ferries in the Channel and in the North Sea.
He said that DFDS is even familiar with the ships as they were all built at the Flensburg Shipyard in Germany where DFDS has also been building vessels to a similar modern design.
