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Cardinal Maritime completes buyout

[ June 29, 2012   //   ]

Manchester based logistics provider, Cardinal Maritime Group, has completed the transfer of its ownership from its founders to management via an employee trust. A deal with founder Brian Hay has delivered control of the business to the management team but Mr Hay will continue as chief executive and maintain a 49% shareholding.

The deal, which valued the business at £ 15m and constructed with the assistance of Grant Thornton and DWF, was funded by shareholder funds and funding from Barclays.

Operations director Charlie McGonagle said “This is a fantastic opportunity for the management team to progress the business forward through the next stage of its fairy-tale journey. Despite growth to date we have plans in place to see significant development of the business over the coming years whilst continuing to revolutionise the supply chain sector”

Philippa Brown of Barclays also commented that she was “impressed by the consistent results produced by the company despite a challenging economic climate. With a strong and dynamic management team in place to take the business forward I am looking forward to working with Cardinal on new ventures for many years to come.”

Cardinal Maritime posted sales of £33.5m in 2011, up year-on-year from £32.8m, while pre-tax profit rose from £0.61m to £1.44m.

It has offices in Dublin, South Africa and its UK brands include Cardinal Plus, Origin Logistics and DFE.

The business was founded in 1998 and now offers a gateway to over 200 ports world-wide from its Manchester head office. It says it was the first global freight logistics provider to offer on-line freight pricing, in 2003.

Brian Hay sees Cardianals role to “challenge conventional business thinking and to unlock more efficient routes to market for Chinese, American and Indian supply chains. Using a combination of new technology and radical supply chain thinking, the business would help support businesses looking to embrace the on-line revelation and move away from the high-street.”

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