Damco in the doldrums

Market Insight: Damco – the end is nigh?

Ever since mid-December, when another not-so surprising layoff announcement concerning AP Møller-Mærsk (APMM) included the departure of  “Klaus, the former Damco head”, as one source highlighted then, a few other market veterans were only vaguely interested in sharing their views on the latest APMM affairs.
With hindsight, that single resounding comment, might be a sign of more big bad things to come for APMM’s asset-light freight forwarding unit or, rather, for …

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Market Insight: Searching for value in Maersk’s 4PL Syngenta contract

Remember the 4PL push advertised by AP Møller-Mærsk (APMM) and agrochemicals behemoth Syngenta at the end of last week?
Whether or not it was an attempt by APMM to fight its reptilian brain, I don’t know. Forget about it – or just think again would be my advice to you.
Here is the background story that senior sources willingly shared with me over the weekend. It all started here from our previous coverage …

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Slowly, but surely, ‘digital’ and ‘traditional’ forwarders are getting closer

Incumbent forwarders with an interest in obscuring transparency have played a role in slowing efforts to digitalise the industry, according to Martin Ring, global chief operations officer for Damco.  
“There are forces in the industry that might not have had a great interest in accelerating digitalisation,” he told event group eft. 
“That’s what they made a living out of – making the complicated understandable. And of course, when you see more digitilisation, you get more transparency and more...

https://theloadstar.com/slowly-but-surely-digital-and-traditional-forwarders-are-getting-closer/

On the wires: Maersk’s push to win new business via Damco smells of desperation, but it’s in good company

“AP Møller Mærsk A/S – Initiates first phase of share buy-back program: As announced on 24 May 2019, A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S has decided to initiate a share buy-back program of up to DKK10bn (around $1.5bn) and a maximum of 3.12m shares to be acquired over a period of up to 15 months” – AP Møller-Maersk (APMM), 3 June 2019.
Onwards and upwards: The shares of APMM rallied over 3% from …

The post On the wires: Maersk’s push to win new business via Damco smells of desperation, but it’s in good...

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Market Insight: Maersk’s 4PL ambitions – “What do they know about SCM and forwarding? Nothing”

I was having a fascinating and rather entertaining call with Mr Ocean, talking about North Korean and Japanese freight forwarders and then, rather obviously, AP Møller-Maersk (APMM) and its ambitious 4PL plans – “they do not explicitly say 4PL, I get that, but end-to-end, purchase order management at origin, is 4PL stuff” – when I was distracted by a ding.
One of my chief sources, Mr Benchmark – who is seldom …

The post Market Insight: Maersk’s 4PL ambitions – “What do they know about SCM and...

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Supply chain radar: Why is APMM working on a McDonald’s strategy when it has a stuffed Damco turkey on the table?

A few days ago, Denmark’s AP Møller-Maersk (APMM) advertised a new takeaway strategy – part of its group-wide Stay Ahead plan – suggesting that what it’s trying to achieve isn’t much different from what McDonald’s (MCD) and its ilk offer to their customers, perhaps ignoring the mechanics behind MCD’s real estate empire.
In other words, the consumer-facing business might be casual and profitable when things go well (they didn’t in the past, …

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Market insight – is Panalpina readying for acquisitive growth?

“Panalpina in serious negotiations for a sizeable takeover”– Mr Benchmark.
I do not believe Swiss 3PL Panalpina is ready to grow inorganically by striking a large deal, such as one worth $1bn or more.
M&A could easily backfire, given likely execution risk, as large acquisitions are not in its DNA. Still without clear board leadership, it could self-harm its market valuation, if investors, as is likely, don’t digest a sizeable deal.
Surely, it is …

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‘A quarter of solid growth on the top line’ for APMM

AP Møller Maersk saw “a quarter of solid growth on the top line” and an underlying profit of $251m in Q3, and a cumulative positive of $100m for the nine-month period.
Group CEO Soren Skou said this morning the result represented “solid progress in our transformation”, adding that Q4 would be “very, very similar” ensuring “good momentum going into 2019”.
Compared with the same quarter of last year, impacted negatively by a cyber attack …

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