Transport group Christian Salvesen is being bought by French rival Norbert Dentressangle in a £254m deal. The 92p/share cash offer is worth about £60m to the Salvesen family, who founded the company in 1846. The deal is almost 80% above the share price on 24 Sept, the day before Salvesen revealed it had received a takeover approach from an unnamed party. Salvesen offers warehousing & delivery services to M&S & Wm Morrison among others. It had sales last year of about £1bn, a figure that will almost double Dentressangle's turnover. Trucks account for more than 70% of freight transported in the EU but the industry is under pressure from higher fuel costs & road tariffs, hence the drive to merge & cut costs. Dentressangle CE, Jean-Claude Michel denied that job cuts would follow the deal. He said the companies share a 'common heritage & common culture'. Salvesen is the latest part of UK industry to fall into foreign hands. French companies have been among the most aggressive purchasers of companies that were once key parts of corporate Britain. Body Shop, which fell to L'Or?al, and construction group BPB, sold to Saint-Gobain, are just two of the firms snapped up lately by French rivals. Today's deal will be financed by credit facilities provided by French bank SocGen. Dentressangle was advised by niche investment bank Hawkpoint, and Salvesen by UBS.
