DFDS expands fer­ry net­work to Strait of Gibraltar

DFDS has entered an agreement to acquire FRS Iberia/Maroc, a ferry market leader on the Strait of Gibraltar, expanding its Mediterranean route network to market expected to benefit from nearshoring of supply chains.

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DFDS has today ente­red into an agree­ment to acqui­re FRS Iberia/Maroc, a divi­si­on of the Ger­man short-sea fer­ry com­pa­ny FRS GmbH & Co. KG. FRS Iberia/Maroc ope­ra­tes three short-sea fer­ry rou­tes across the Strait of Gibral­tar con­nec­ting Spain and Morocco.

“We are exci­ted to expand our net­work to one of Europe’s signi­fi­cant fer­ry mar­kets that we expect will con­ti­nue to show high growth under­pin­ned by the ongo­ing near­sho­ring of sup­p­ly chains to Euro­pe”, says Tor­ben Carlsen, CEO of DFDS.

„This is a gre­at oppor­tu­ni­ty to sca­le DFDS’ busi­ness model. We will app­ly our capa­bi­li­ties and expe­ri­ence, not least from the Chan­nel short-sea mar­ket, to fur­ther deve­lop the Strait of Gibral­tar fer­ry infra­struc­tu­re while sup­port­ing regio­nal tou­rism and trade”, says Mathieu Girar­din, Head of DFDS’ Fer­ry Divi­si­on and EVP.

„FRS Iberia/Maroc has achie­ved gre­at suc­cess for more than two deca­des. We are plea­sed to have found a part­ner in DFDS who will run the com­pa­ny in a pro­ven man­ner to ensu­re its con­tin­ued growth and take good care of our employees”, says Götz Becker, CEO FRS Group.

Fol­lo­wing the devas­ta­ting ear­th­qua­ke in Moroc­co, the FRS Group has offe­red Moroc­can aut­ho­ri­ties to assist with the trans­port of emer­gen­cy sup­pli­es, medi­ci­ne, and other emer­gen­cy reli­ef equip­ment. DFDS com­mends and ful­ly sup­ports the­se efforts while we through diplo­ma­tic repre­sen­ta­ti­ves will explo­re pos­si­bi­li­ties for pro­vi­ding fur­ther assistance.

Stra­te­gic fit

The acqui­si­ti­on is ali­gned with DFDS’ stra­tegy to deve­lop and expand the trans­port net­work focu­sed on moving goods in trai­lers by fer­ry, road & rail as well as moving passengers.

The acqui­si­ti­on expands DFDS’ Medi­ter­ra­ne­an rou­te net­work that today con­nects Euro­pe with Tür­ki­ye and Tuni­sia, respec­tively. The region’s orga­nic mar­ket growth is expec­ted to con­ti­nue to exceed growth levels in nor­t­hern Euro­pe under­pin­ned by near­sho­ring of manu­fac­tu­ring sup­p­ly chains clo­ser to end mar­kets in Europe.

The inte­gra­ti­on of FRS Iberia/Maroc is expec­ted to bring ope­ra­ting bene­fits, inclu­ding ton­na­ge allo­ca­ti­on and bene­fits from appli­ca­ti­on of busi­ness model insights from exis­ting freight fer­ry rou­tes and the com­bi­ned freight and pas­sen­ger Chan­nel short-sea routes.

FRS Iberia/Maroc will con­tri­bu­te to both the freight fer­ry and pas­sen­ger seg­ments in the Fer­ry Divi­si­on. Expec­ted syn­er­gies and inte­gra­ti­on plans will be dis­c­lo­sed in con­nec­tion with the clo­sing of the transaction.

Quel­le: DFDS / FRS

Quel­le & Kontakt:

Group Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons

Glo­bal Media Relations

Tel. +45 31 16 28 47

grcom@dfds.com

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