MSC is reportedly keen to buy a majority shareholding in Wilson, Sons, the Brazilian based diversified shipping, terminal operating and logistics company.
MSC is reportedly keen to buy a majority shareholding in Wilson, Sons, the Brazilian based diversified shipping, terminal operating and logistics company.
An article published in the Globo newspaper stirred up the “Chat and Gossip channels” in Brazilian port and maritime circles and Wilson, Sons declared that it was carrying out one of its occasional “strategic reviews” but that “nothing was on the table”.
Wilson, Sons, owns and operates two port terminals (Tecon Salvador in the northeast of Brazil, and Tecon Rio Grande, TRG, in the far south) and also owns a shipyard (in Guaruja, across the channel from Santos), and two fleets (88 tugboats and 22 Offshore Support Vessels), as well as an inland terminal (at Santo Andre, near Sao Paulo), two offshore support bases and various other offices and ship agencies.
Taking over Tecon Salvador and TRG – two deepwater terminals – could greatly assist MSC’s transshipment options along East Coast of South America, several analysts advised PS.
According to Bloomberg the share price of parent company Ocean Wilsons Holdings Limited shot up by 14.07 per cent in the wake of the news that MSC was looking to buy the company. However, although contact between the two parties has been made, reliable sources do not believe any formal offers have been put forward by the Swiss headquartered company, which has a 50 per cent share in the BTP Terminal Operating Company in Santos. The share price of Santos Brasil, still Brazil’s biggest TOC, also rose (also by 14 per cent) on the Wilson’s news with the Bovespa (Sao Paulo stock exchange) reflecting the fact that MSC, and its partner Maersk, had also shown an interest in buying them, not so long ago. The current valuation of Wilson, Sons on the Bovespa is around Reais8.8BN (US$1.8BN)
Arnaldo Calbucci, the CEO for Wilson, Sons in Brazil, told PS that the “main shareholders of the company are studying strategic possibilities as they regularly do and have done in the past” and that there is “nothing on the table” right now.
A statement from Wilson, Sons to both the London Stock Exchange and Bovespa, reflects the same sentiment as Calbucci, stating that “no formal proposals had been made from third parties”.
“Whenever news of these discussions is leaked or released the share price shoots up, so I am not sure how credible the MSC bid is, but it possibly has more substance than the Maersk one of two years ago and there would be more synergies in an MSC buy than a Maersk one,” said one markets analyst based in Sao Paulo.
