EAGLE FREIGHT - rated by SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) as SA's largest local forwarder in employee numbers - has a 35% minority shareholding held by ABX Logistics, a subsidiary of Belgian Railways.
However, a communication error prevented FTW from being alerted to this as we compiled our February 9 story on SA's merger mania in the forwarding industry.
ABX acquired its shareholding in 1998, Eagle m.d. Bobby Pearson told FTW, and this global major provides a widespread international network to the SA company.
The Belgian company is rated amongst the top five forwarders in Europe, and the world's top 10, with over 16 000 employees based in 450 offices in 32 of the major countries around the world.
It has also been on a serious expansion programme of its own in recent years, with the purchase, for example, of Germany's Thyssen Haniel Logistics; Italy's biggest forwarder Saima Avandero; and France's largest agents, the Dubois group.
ABX logistics has also been expanding to China, Indonesia, Japan and the Pacific Rim, said Eagle director John Buckley-Jones, seriously developing its already strong Asian network of owned offices.
Pearson also stressed that ABX was very heavily into road transport in Europe, UK and Ireland and has a lot to offer partner companies like Eagle with its varied global network of products.
We foresaw the merger scene developing in 1998, he said, and finalised the deal with ABX in anticipation.
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