UK's Salvesen acquired by French trucker; Norbert Dentressangle sees great synergies.

Christian Salvesen, the United Kingdom's largest temperature controlled logistics operator and a major transporter of frozen and chilled products, was acquired on Oct. 1 by French transport company Groupe Norbert Dentressangle.

The purchase price for the British firm, which started out as a Scottish whaling and fishing company, was reportedly 254 million [pounds sterling] ($519 million). Salvesen provides distribution services for several supermarket chains and other retailers, including Marks & Spencer and Morrisons.

The 92 pence-a-share deal came after an auction handled by Salvesen's adviser UBS, in which the French family-controlled business outbid one rival bidder. Jean-Claude Michel, chief executive of Groupe Norbert Dentressangle, whose vehicles are now a familiar sight on British roads, said the deal created a "powerful new group" with over 29,000 employees and annual revenues of around 3.2 billion euros in 2007.

Michel said he expects to achieve savings of 25 million euros a year by 2010, but not by making any substantial cuts to Salvesen's 14,000-strong workforce because there is little overlap between the two companies. They will also have a combined fleet of over 20,000 trailers and lorry tractor units and 390 sites including those in Scotland and Grimsby.

There is a good geographic fit between the two, Michel observed, with Salvesen concentrating on the UK and the Iberian peninsula, while Dentressangle's strengths are in France, Germany and Eastern Europe. Dentressangle will also benefit from Salvesen's expertise in frozen food distribution.

Dentressangle, headquartered near Lyon in France, had sales of some 1.6 billion euros (1 billion [pounds sterling]) in 2006. It has 190 locations in 13 European countries. Christian Salvesen reported sales for the year ended March 31, 2007, of 899 million [pounds sterling]--up 10%, but operating profit was down 15% to 18.1 million [pounds sterling].

Salvesen, formed in 1872, diversified into the frozen food industry in 1958 by opening a refrigerated warehouse, before later expanding into transport and distribution.