ANKARA
U.S. based international courier delivery company FedEx said on Tuesday it has offered to buy Dutch parcel delivery company TNT Express for $4.8 billion in cash.
"FedEx Corporation (FedEx) and TNT Express N.V. (TNT Express) reached conditional agreement on recommended all-cash public offer of €8.00 per ordinary TNT Express share," the two companies said in a joint statement.
The offer is being priced at a 33 percent premium compared to current share trading value, according to the joint press release.
"FedEx and TNT Express anticipate that the Offer will close in the first half of calendar year 2016. FedEx and TNT Express are confident that anti-trust concerns, if any, can be addressed adequately in a timely fashion," the statement added.
“We believe that this strategic acquisition will add significant value for FedEx shareowners, team members and customers around the globe. This transaction allows us to quickly broaden our portfolio of international transportation solutions to take advantage of market trends," Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and CEO of FedEx said in the statement.
“This offer comes at a time of important transformations within TNT Express and we were fully geared to executing our stand-alone strategy. But while we did not solicit an acquisition, we truly believe that FedEx’s proposal, both from a financial and a non-financial view, is good news for all stakeholders," Tex Gunning, CEO of TNT Express said.
The companies also said that existing employment terms of TNT Express will be respected.
In early 2013, EU regulators blocked a bid by the world’s largest parcel-delivery company UPS for TNT Express, saying that the transaction would have restricted competition in the express-delivery sector in 15 EU countries and that concessions offered by UPS were inadequate.
