Chemical logistics specialist Bertschi Global Logistics and MSC Belgium NV have each taken a 10% stake in Swiss rail freight company, Crossrail AG.
Both stakes have been acquired through an injection of fresh capital.
The company’s other shareholders are Le Jeune Capital & Partners AG, an investment vehicle, controlled by Crossrail’s founder, Jeroen Le Jeune, with 20% of the capital, Austrian international transport, firm, LKW Walter (25%), intermodal operator, Hupac (25%) and Italy’s General Transport Service (10%).
Bertschi-Group chairman and CEO, Hans-Jörg Bertschi, told Lloyds Loading List.com that Crossrail’s new shareholder structure would strenghten the company’s financial position and allow it to continue its development on the fast-growing Benelux-Eastern Europe-Russia traffic lane.
Headquartered in Basel, Crossrail AG has an annual turnover of approximately €100 million.
Bertschi went on to reveal that his group, which currently transports about 80% of its traffic flows on trains, is setting up rail terminals at the port of Helsinki and in Tarragona, in northern Spain.
Scheduled to open in November 2012, the Helsinki facility will serve as a hub for intermodal traffic to Russia.
Work has just been completed on the Tarragona terminal and it is set to enter service this September with trains operating across Europe on behalf of a cluster of major chemical companies.
Earlier this year, Bertschi doubled handling capacity at its rail terminal in Rotterdam.
In 2012, Bertschi’s investment in intermodal transport is expected to total €50 million compared to €40 million last year.
As part of adding a global reach to its operations, the group has this year created subsidiary companies in Shanghai and Houston which followed Saudi Arabia in 2011.
Bertschi is eyeing the setting up of subsidiaries in south-east Asia and Dubai in 2012 too.
Source: http://www.lloydsloadinglist.com/
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