DFDS acquires transport network of Turkey’s Ekol

David Knighton/Alamy via Reuters

• Deal will be worth $277m
• Conditional on EU approval
• Talks started in 2022

The Danish shipping and logistics company DFDS is to acquire the international transport network of Turkey’s Ekol Logistics for 1.9 billion crowns ($277 million).

The acquisition will add road transport to its Mediterranean ferry network, DFDS said.

DFDS’s chief executive, Torben Carlsen, said his company believed Turkey’s role as a manufacturing hub for Europe “will become even stronger in the future” as nearshoring – the practice of outsourcing tasks to neighbouring or nearby countries rather than distant locations – “drives supply chains closer to end markets”.

---

---

The transaction between DFDS and Istanbul-based Ekol will be financed using a combination of loan and existing cash.

The two companies started talking about a deal in 2022, and it was approved by the Turkish Competition Authority in July 2023. It is still conditional upon European Union approval and contractual conditions. 

• DHL buys Turkish firm to tap into e-commerce sector

• Turkey’s exports hit all-time high of $256bn in 2023 

• Turkish manufacturers buoyed by rise in PMI

The Turkey-Europe transport market is expected to grow by around 14 percent annually until 2028, DFDS said. It expects the deal to be closed by early Q4 this year.

Ekol Logistics’s international transport network has 3,700 employees and a revenue of €470m in 2023