A.P. Moller - Maersk today announced that they have entered into an agreement with Bridgepoint Development Capital (“BDC”) and other shareholders to acquire 100% of KGH Customs Services (“KGH” or the “Company”), a leading provider of trade and customs management in Europe.
Under the new ownership, KGH will together with A.P Moller - Maersk continue to build on their extensive experience and customs expertise to create efficient and seamless trade flows and minimise difficult pain points for their customers.
Headquartered in Gothenburg, KGH is a leading specialist customs services provider employing 775 dedicated trade and customs professionals serving over 25,000 customers each year. Through a wide range of customs services, the Company helps to improve trade performance, operational efficiency, risk management and customs duty control. The Company currently operates in 12 countries across Europe.
BDC acquired KGH in 2013, and during BDC's ownership the Company has delivered strong profitable growth each year and expanded its geographic footprint across Europe. In addition, KGH invested substantially in its digital capabilities, developing a comprehensive and industry-leading customs software platform.
Johan Dahlfors, Partner at BDC and responsible for its investment activities in the Nordic region comments: "We have had the pleasure to partner with a talented and highly committed team, and together we have developed KGH from a leading regional Nordic player to a customs service provider of scale with a much broader footprint in Europe. The progress achieved by the team during our ownership has been outstanding, and we believe that KGH is now uniquely positioned to continue to deliver on its strategic growth agenda. We look forward to following the Company's future development with Maersk as its next partner in growth."
Lars Börjesson, CEO of KGH, said: "We are excited about joining forces with Maersk, a company that shares our values and passion for trade and logistics. Together, we will continue to build on the great success our respective teams have achieved to-date. Customs services is an essential part of trade customers' end-to-end needs which we in unison with Maersk will be able to provide with seamlessness and global reach. We would also like to thank BDC for their strong contribution over the last six years, in what has been a very successful partnership".
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. Until obtaining these and the closing of the transaction, A.P. Moller - Maersk and KGH will remain two separate companies and will continue to do their business as usual.
Advisers for BDC in relation to the transaction included: Carnegie (corporate finance), PWC (financial advisor), Cederquist (legal advisor).