Simon back on track?

The Simon Group looks set to be sold to its main client, Cobelfret, following a majority stake taken by the latter’s investment arm Montauban. The initial acquisition price was placed at £95.3M, of which the cash element would be around £51.5M. The Simon Group had a turnover of £26M in 2005, which generated a profit of £3.12M.

Even though Cobelfret is about to take over Simon’s UK port interests (see this issue, p9), Timothy Chadwick, Simon’s executive chairman, has reportedly recruited several unnamed former US government officials and claims to have the finance from US sources to bid for P&O Ports’ US operations, which DP World has been forced to put up for sale.

The acquisition of UK shortsea intermodal operator Seawheel by Icelandic shipping-to-logistics company Samskip (see WorldCargo News July 2005, p19) has been completed following approval of the deal by European regulatory authorities.

Icelandic shipping line Samskip is set to acquire long-established shortsea shipping operator Seawheel.

Seawheel is launching a new weekly service this month between Duisburg and Goole using its unique river-hulled sea-going vessels, which have been deployed between Duisburg and Tilbury since 1998.

UK-based short sea and intermodal operator Seawheel has signed a E3.7 mill sale and lease back deal with Capital Intermodal covering over 1200 TEU of nearly-new equipment owned by Seawheel.