30 million pounds Palletforce sale completes
7th October 2015
The sale, recommended by the Palletforce Board, has become effective under a Companies Act scheme of arrangement. The Palletforce executive management have invested in Forcefield Bidco alongside EmergeVest.
EmergeVest is a Hong Kong based investment management business with over $300m under management. It already has interests in the UK logistics and transport sector with a participation in NFT Distribution and Allports Cargo Services.
Palletforce is a leading pallet network distribution business with operations across Europe transporting a wide variety of palletised goods for overnight delivery on behalf of members businesses.
Operating from a best in class central hub in Burton upon Trent, it has a customer base spread across most industrial and retail sectors.
Palletforce has consistently grown at double-digit rates since being formed in 2001 with total network revenue increasing to over ?77m in the year ended 31 August 2014. Volumes continue to grow at a fast rate and in the six months ended 28 February 2015 the Palletforce network collected and delivered nearly 1.5m pallets, an increase of 20% over the corresponding period in the previous year.
The Cattaneo team comprised; Gary Hyem, Ian Stanway and Charles Cattaneo.
John Brotherton, Chairman of Palletforce commented: The sale of Palletforce at a substantial premium to the last traded share value allows our shareholders to benefit financially from our impressive growth in revenue and profits.
“The Cattaneo team did an excellent job of guiding us through the negotiations and technicalities of the sale process and, in particular, the extensive due diligence exercise undertaken by EmergeVest as part of their acquisition process.”