Toll Group acquires WT and Genesis

Toll Group announced it will acquire WT Sea Air Group (WT) and Genesis Forwarding Group (Genesis) to become one of the top UK forwarders. Toll generates revenue in excess of A$6.5bn (US$5.7bn) and employs over 35,000 people in 55 countries.

“These two UK-headquartered acquisitions combine to provide significant scale to our Toll Global Forwarding (TGF) division in Europe. WT is expected to generate revenue this year of around A$170m and Genesis is expected to generate around A$80m,” said Toll’s managing director, Paul Little.

WT is a inbound business from Asia specialising in the provision of global forwarding and value added services such as bonded warehousing, pick-pack, garment re-hanging, vacuum packing and final mile delivery services. Its customer base is in the retail fashion segment.

Genesis specialises in the provision of complex and mission critical international multi-modal freight

predominantly in the defence, aerospace and, oil and gas industries across Europe, US, Asia Pacific and Middle East.

The acquisition of WT and Genesis will generate over A$250m in revenue and are both expected to be EPS accretive in year one based on the combined purchase price of around A$150m.

Toll also announced that it has concluded the sale of its 50 percent interest in the Pacorini Toll joint venture to the Pacorini Group. The business is a provider of integrated logistics solutions and trade finance facilitation for the ferrous and non-ferrous metals industries.

“While the joint venture has been a successful business since its formation, it was decided that the

ownership interest was not a core asset for Toll. Importantly, Toll will continue its relationship with Pacorini through the provision of warehousing and other logistics services,” said Little.

Toll will recognise a small profit on the sale of its investment in the 2010 financial year.