Maersk Expands with Air Freight Investments

Ocean shipping giant A.P. Møller – Maersk on Tuesday further expanded into the air freight market with the planned acquisition of German freight forwarder Senator International and investments in new cargo aircraft, including two new factory-direct Boeing 777s.

The deal is valued at $644 million and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022 after a regulatory review by competition authorities. Maersk said it paid eight times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for Senator, which investors consider as an average industry valuation.

Hamburg-based Senator International is a large logistics company with 1,700 employees and operations across Europe, Asia, South Africa, and the Americas. Its core business is airfreight, which represents 65 percent of its revenue. Senator expects revenue this year to reach $950 million, up from $730 million in 2020, and adjusted EBITDA of more than $80 million.

Senator has a significant air charter network with 19 weekly all-cargo flights operated by contract carriers, such as Magma Aviation. This year it leased an airside warehouse at Chicago Rockford International Airport (KRFD) to handle freight on its dedicated flights.

It also operates a cargo facility at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina (KGSP), a less-congested alternative to Atlanta for serving customers in the Southeast, such as BMW.

Maersk’s third-quarter profit, reported Tuesday, was its best quarter ever, thanks to a strong seller’s market in ocean freight.

The moves are part of the company’s recent strategy to diversify beyond the volatile ocean freight sector and be a logistics supermarket that meets the transportation needs of large global shippers, which can pick service levels and transit speed based on whether time, cost or control is the most important factor.

They also make Maersk more resilient to pandemic-generated disruptions like those besetting supply chains this year by allowing it to more easily shift shipments between modes, including rail, depending on market conditions or transport delays.

The purchase of Senator will double Maersk’s air cargo volume.

“We are acquiring this company as a growth platform.…We believe we will have a competitive offering in some of the main corridors…[and] hope that we can make this business grow very, very fast, as we have done with some of our other acquisitions,” Maersk CEO Soren Skou said.

Maersk said its private airline, Star Air, has rented three Boeing 767-300 converted freighters from the leasing arm of Air Transport Services Group based in Wilmington, Ohio, and purchased two factory-built 777s direct from Boeing. The leased aircraft will enter service next year and the 777 freighters are scheduled for delivery in 2024.

Star Air, established in 1987 and based at Copenhagen airport, currently operates 15 medium-capacity aircraft—12 Boeing 767-200 and one Boeing 767-300 converted passenger aircraft plus two 767-300 new-builds from Boeing. It employs 160 pilots and 50 technicians within its flight and maintenance operations.

“Today, we are a midsized global air-freight player and through our core carrier program we can manage time-critical, oversized or high-value cargo transportation for our customers,” said Torben Bengtsson, global head of air and LCL, in a message to customers. “Senator operates a significant part of their business through a dedicated air bridge using 19 weekly flights across its network with guaranteed capacity.

“This focus on own-controlled capacity is highly aligned with Maersk’s airfreight strategy. The moves we are making will allow us to offer customers a truly unique combination of airfreight integrated with other transport modes.”

Last February, large ocean rival CMA CGM launched its own airline with four Airbus A3430-300 widebody freighters operated by leisure passenger airline Air Belgium. In September it placed an order with Boeing for two factory-built 777 freighters. CMA CGM Air Cargo currently operates to three U.S. cities plus Dubai.

Like Maersk, CMA CGM is branching out to be an end-to-end provider of logistics services, having also acquired CEVA Logistics, a major third-party logistics provider, in 2019.

Editor’s Note: FreightWaves Senior Editor Greg Miller contributed to this story.