Maersk’s APM Terminals Expands in Latin America with Acquisition on Spanish Rival

By Christian Wienberg

(Bloomberg) — A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S’s terminal unit mentioned Tuesday it agreed to purchase a Spanish rival to increase its port community by nearly 20 %.

APM Terminals can pay an undisclosed sum for Barcelona- primarily based Grup Maritim TCB, thereby including 11 container terminals to its present community of 63, the corporate mentioned in an e-mailed assertion. The Spanish family-controlled firm is the world’s twenty third largest port operator, in accordance with the assertion. APM Terminals ranks third.

Nils Smedegaard Andersen, Maersk’s group chief govt officer, has cash to spend on acquisitions after divesting a stake in Danske Bank A/S, a grocery store chain and, most lately, an offshore security unit. Andersen has mentioned he’ll focus acquisitions on Copenhagen-based Maersk’s core areas of seaborne commerce and oil.

Maersk “is in a strong position to make investments of this kind in volatile markets and pursue growth opportunities — both organically and by acquisition,” Andersen mentioned in Tuesday’s assertion. “The acquisition supports our growth plans and value proposition towards APM Terminals’ wide range of customers in Europe and Latin America.”

Adding Grup Maritim TCB’ amenities in Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Spain and Turkey will increase the Danish firm’s quantity capability by 5 %, to about 40.3 million standard-sized containers.

APM Terminals final month fashioned a $200 million three way partnership to spend money on a Colombian port. The firm has additionally mentioned it’s concerned with shopping for the state-controlled ports that the Greece authorities is planning to promote.