Panalpina investor rebuffs DSV’s $4bn takeover offer

Bloomberg

Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG’s largest shareholder rejected a $4.2 billion offer from Denmark’s DSV A/S, saying the Swiss air-cargo company would do better with its own expansion plan.
The Panalpina committee of the Ernst Goehner Foundation, which holds 45.9 percent of the stock, said in a statement it “supports Panalpina’s board of directors in pursuing an independent growth strategy that includes M&A.”
The Danish-Swiss combination would create the world’s second-biggest air cargo firm and would rank fourth in the global logistics market.
The decision sent Panalpina shares tumbling as much as 9.1 percent, the steepest intraday decline in four years, in Zurich trading, while DSV dropped 2.9 percent in Copenhagen.
“The likelihood of no deal has increased, but likewise the chances of a higher offer increased as well,” Michael Foeth, analyst at Vontobel Holding AG, wrote in a note.
DSV is emerging from a failed attempt to buy Swiss peer Ceva Logistics AG in 2018 and made an unsolici-ted cash-and-stock offer for Basel-based Panalpina last month. Panalpina would give it a boost in air-cargo volumes and ocean-going containers, complementing the Danish company’s strength in road shipments.
DSV head of investor relations Flemming Nielsen declined to comment on the rejection. Chief Executive Officer Jens Bjorn Andersen said in a January 16 interview the offer was “ among the very best in our sector’s history based on whichever
multiple you look at.”