Waberer’s International makes another important acquisition after concluding a purchase agreement to acquire a majority (51%) stake in Petrolsped Group, one of Hungary leading rail logistics service providers. Waberer’s announced at the beginning of October that it would acquire a majority 55% stake in MD International, a major player in the Serbian distribution market. The new acquisition, signed today, follows Waberer’s signing a preliminary agreement to acquire a stake in Petrolsped in July this year, conducting detailed financial, legal and technical due diligence and agreeing on the detailed terms of the transaction with the sellers.
Zsolt Barna, President and CEO of Waberer’s International said that with the transaction, the Group will take a significant step towards building its multimodal service portfolio, further broadening its service portfolio, developing its rail logistics capabilities and entering the special logistics segment that currently mainly uses rail services (e.g. agricultural products, construction products). In addition, Waberer’s is more in line with the European Union’s strategy to use rail as much of long-distance transport as possible. Zsolt Barna pointed out that through the integration of Petrolsped’s experience, customer portfolio and assets, Waberer’s will have all the necessary capabilities to become a competitive and significant player in the domestic and regional rail-based logistics market. The President and CEO of Waberer’s emphasized that they see significant growth opportunities in this market segment partly because of new industrial and automotive investments in Hungary, and partly because their existing customers are increasingly turning to low-carbon logistics services.
Petrolsped Group is one of Hungary leading rail logistics service providers, which – partly with its own railway vehicles – provides rail freight services focusing mainly on the territory of Hungary and Romania, both directly and through its subsidiaries (Pultrans and PSP Cargo Romania). Over the past 15-20 years, the Petrolsped Group has built up a diverse service portfolio that provides great flexibility to serve both mass and special rail transport needs. Most of these services are available in Europe in addition to Hungary and the region.
Like Waberer’s road transport business, Petrolsped combines flexible transport services with subcontractors and rail transport services with its own locomotive and wagon portfolio. The main groups of goods supplied by the company include, among others, agricultural products, raw materials for construction or power plants, oil products and vehicles. In addition, Petrolsped is in the final phase of the construction of a state-of-the-art intermodal terminal in southern Hungary, which could provide an optimal basis for supporting intermodal transport between the Balkans and Western Europe. The Petrolsped Group achieved consolidated sales of €53m with EBIT of €3.8m.
Source: Waberer’s International