C.H. Robinson purchased a major Australian freight forwarder for $225 million, the logistics company's third-largest acquisition in five years.
Eden Prairie-based C.H. Robinson announced Wednesday it acquired APC Logistics, a leading freight forwarding and customs brokerage in Australia and New Zealand.
APC has been a partner of C.H. Robinson through an "exclusive agent relationship." If Robinson's customers are shipping to Australia, APC handles the freight forwarding. So, Robinson hasn't had an office in Australia.
With the APC deal, it will have seven offices in Australia and two more in New Zealand, employing about 300 altogether. APC had $251 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year and serves more than 3,000 customers and suppliers.
"APC is a high quality company with a proven track record of success," said Mike Short, president of C.H. Robinson's global freight forwarding division, in a statement. APC has about a 10 percent share of the freight-forwarding business in Australia and New Zealand, according to C.H. Robinson.
Investors reacted positively, with Robinson's stock closing Thursday at $71.04, up $1.62 or 2.3 percent.
Robinson's international freight forwarding business has 3,500 employees and 109 offices worldwide. Overall, Robinson — one of the world's largest third-party logistics parties — employs 13,000 people and has annual revenue of over $13 billion. The company doesn't own a fleet of trucks or ships, but brokers shipments of all sorts of goods through several modes of transportation.
The logistics business is still relatively fragmented, and C.H. Robinson has been a consolidator recently, spending more than $1.2 billion on acquisitions since 2010.
