Shipping group A.P. Møller - Mærsk has announced the acquisition of two e-commerce companies as the world's biggest container shipping line increases its focus on land-based services.
Maersk handles one in five containers shipped worldwide but is looking to transform into an integrated logistics company to gain more work from existing clients such as Walmart.
It bought Visible Supply Chain Management and B2C Europe, both specialised in e-commerce, for a combined enterprise value of $924 million (€781.4 million), the group said.
It also confirmed a 60% jump in second-quarter revenue and a more than tripling of its quarterly core profit announced in a preliminary trading statement earlier this week, when it raised its 2021 profit outlook.
The pandemic has prompted shortages of container ships and logjams at ports that has sent freight rates to record levels.
'Congestions And Bottlenecks'
“The strong results benefited both from the exceptional circumstances in Ocean, where congestions and bottlenecks continued to drive up rates, and from solid progress in executing on our strategic transformation where we kept a firm focus on our customers need for integrated solutions across their supply chains," commented chief executive Søren Skou.
"I am pleased with the strategic progress we have made and the high value generation. We continue to build a higher quality Ocean business with more long-term contracts, a rapidly growing logistics business, and a value creating terminals business. Our exceptional earnings and high cash flow enable us to further accelerate our transformation, invest in growing our activities, also through acquisitions and at the same time return cash to shareholders."
Skou added that the outlook for the group's third quarter is "strong", with continued positive momentum in its Ocean business. Last year, the group undertook a major reorganisation of its business.
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