Itella Corporation and VR Group have today signed a letter of intent for a business acquisition where Itella Logistics acquires the groupage logistics business of VR Transpoint in Finland. The net sales of the groupage logistics included in the letter of intent is approximately €130 million, and the number of staff is more than 800. State-owner has actively participated in preparing this acquisition, which aims at eliminating overlap between the operations of the two state-owned companies.
The realization of acquisition is expected to take about three months. Acquisition also requires approval by the competition authorities.
"This is good for Finnish logistics operations because the extensive operations also involve efficiency benefits. Our in-depth research has shown that merging the companies' functions will also achieve advantages visible to the customers," says Jukka Alho, President and CEO of Itella.
"VR Transpoint will focus on mass goods logistics and its development both on railways and road. Giving up on groupage logistics is part of the change in VR Group's strategy", says Mikael Aro, President and CEO of VR Group.
Further information:
Jukka Alho, Itella, President and CEO, tel: +358 20 452 3366 (Itella MediaDesk)
Mikael Aro, VR Group, President and CEO, tel: +358 30 720 000
Itella Logistics
Itella Logistics, part of Itella Group, supports and develops the business of its customer companies by providing them with service logistics solutions for road, sea and air freight, warehousing and other contract logistics. Customers may outsource an individual element of their logistics process, or even their entire supply chain, to us. Itella Logistics has operations in eight countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia). The company provides global services through its partners. The net sales of Itella Logistics was in 2011 MEUR 732 and it employed 7,100 persons. www.itella.com/logistics.
VR Group
VR Group is a versatile, environmentally friendly and responsible travel, logistics and infrastructure construction service company. VR Group provides employment for 11,500 professionals in Finland and ten European countries.
