DHL not focusing on mergers and acquisitions for now

Deutsche Post DHL Group CEO Frank Appel told the Wall Street Journal that the company is not currently interested in the logistics mergers and acquisitions market, despite growing activity in the industry.

Instead, the company will be focused on developing technology internally.

“In global forwarding… there is still a lot of M&A activity going on, but we are still the largest,” Appel said. “So we think it’s better to focus on ourselves.”

Given their current position at the top of the ladder—ahead of Kuehne + Nagel and DB Schenker for freight forwarding—any significant merger opportunities for DHL would most likely result in antitrust issues. In addition, Appel believes it is more cost-effective to develop new technologies in-house than to acquire technology-oriented startups.

Deutsche Post DHL Group reported €61.6 billion revenue in 2018, a 6% rise in organic growth from the previous year, following a successful peak season and booming cross-border e-commerce.

Source: Wall Street Journal