Imperial Logistics buys Deep Catch to grow its cold storage capacity

Imperial Logistics, whose trucks haul everything from fuel to beer, is beefing up its coldstorage capacity in Southern Africa as it eyes a bigger footprint in a region where cheap protein is in high demand.

Imperial, which is pursuing a strategy of becoming a “gateway to Africa”, has agreed to pay R633m for Deep Catch Namibia, which is engaged in the wholesale, distribution and cold storage of perishable foods, mainly poultry, fish and dairy products.

The group has been selling off noncore businesses, including its European shipping business, and made it clear it was looking for opportunities in the fastmoving consumer goods industry. Group CEO Mohammed Akoojee said on Thursday that the acquisition would build the group’s cold-chain capability and allow for it to grow its product base in existing markets of operation.

“This acquisition will provide access to defensive, valueadded capabilities in fastmoving consumer goods, such as repackaging,” Akoojee said in a statement, with the term defensive referring to products that generally fare well during periods of economic downturn.

Deep Catch has three commercial cold-storage warehouses in Namibia and SA, operating more than 50 multitemperature vehicles and employing more than 480 staff.

The acquisition price is subject to profit performance until June 2024, but if targets are met the purchase is N$633m (R633m).

In the year to end-June 2020, Deep Catch generated N$1.036bn in revenue and $100.8m in core profit.

In the same period, Imperial generated R46.4bn in revenue from continuing operations and R4.1bn in core profit.

Imperial has been acquisitive in 2021, announcing in February it had acquired 60% of e-commerce logistics business ParcelNinja for an undisclosed amount. ParcelNinja offers an outsourced warehousing and fulfilment business to SA online shops.

Group sales include its European shipping business for R3.44bn in July 2020, while in April 2021 it announced it had agreed to sell its South American shipping business for $90m (R1.26bn).

In afternoon trade on Thursday Imperial’s shares were trading 1% lower at R49.61, having risen a third so far in 2021, but after falling just more than 18% since the beginning of 2020.

THIS ACQUISITION WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO DEFENSIVE, VALUEADDED CAPABILITIES