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Opportunity to consolidate two businesses to drive sustainable inland shipping in the region
Infracapital, the infrastructure team at M&G plc, is to acquire 100% of Multimodal Container Services Beheer B.V. (“MCS”), one of the Netherlands’ largest container logistics companies.
MCS has a large customer base in the north of the Netherlands, with a strong focus on the export of agriproducts, and ships approximately 100,000 containers per year from three terminals in Meppel, Leeuwarden and Groningen. The company provides full-service container logistics, operating 11 barges, each with capacity exceeding 75 standard shipping containers (150+ TEUs), as well as 80 trucks.
Inland shipping is significantly more sustainable than road haulage and is a resilient and growing segment in the Benelux logistics sector, with each barge having the ability to transport the equivalent load of 100 trucks with 75% less CO2 emissions.
The Infracapital strategy acquiring the company is designed to invest in sustainable and essential brownfield infrastructure, to meet the changing needs of society and support long-term economic growth across Europe. Earlier this year, Infracapital acquired BCTN, a leading inland container terminal operator in the Benelux, and the intention is to combine these two companies to create further growth opportunities as customers increasingly look to reduce their environmental impact.
Herman Deetman, Managing Director at Infracapital, said: “We are excited to acquire MCS. As companies of all shapes and sizes increasingly look to reduce their environmental impact, both MCS and BCTN have the opportunity to shape the future of sustainable shipping in the region. These highly complementary businesses are benefitting from the structural shift to barging, which is underpinned by the need to decarbonise and to reduce road congestion around ports, and we look forward to growing this platform in the years ahead.”
Nutte Visser, CEO of MCS said: “As management of MCS, we are pleased with Infracapital as a new shareholder with dedicated and in-depth knowledge of the markets in which we operate. Infracapital has expressed their confidence in our growth ambitions and will support us in achieving them. We are therefore looking forward to our collaboration, with which we expect to be able to serve our customers even better in the future.”