TX Logistik and FS Group take over freight railway Exploris Deutschland Holding

With the acquisition, TX Logistik becomes the second largest rail freight carrier in Germany

Troisdorf/Rome, 27 July 2023 – TX Logistik AG, a company of the Mercitalia Group, in which the logistics activities of the FS Italiane Group are bundled, acquires the German company Exploris Deutschland Holding GmbH, Hamburg, and thus becomes the second largest rail freight transport operator in Germany. The companies of Exploris Deutschland Holding GmbH also include Via Cargo, HSL Logistik and Delta Rail, which are active in rail freight transport in eight European countries.

“The transaction makes us very proud and confirms our great determination in positioning the logistics business in the international arena for the development of imports and exports of our country in support of Made in Italy,” says Sabrina De Filippis, CEO of Mercitalia Logistics. “Furthermore, with this acquisition we establish a further fundamental pillar to achieve the objectives of the European Union for the modal shift for the mobility of goods, in favour of rail transport.”

The acquisition not only strengthens FS Group’s presence in the European market, but also offers new opportunities for transports to and from Italy, which also benefits the import and export services of the Italian industry.

International rail connections of Exploris are strongly oriented on the east-west transport axis and therefore complete the TX Logistik network, which is already established along the north-south axis of Europe. The Exploris operating companies operate with their own safety certificates in the railway markets of Germany, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Switzerland.

Exploris mainly focuses on rail freight transport in the conventional transport segment: it currently operates about 240 trains per week, dedicated to the transport of steel, gypsum, agricultural products, automobiles, construction machinery or mineral oil products for numerous industrial and logistic customers. These traffics complement and add to those of TX Logistik, which mainly specialises in intermodal transport and combined transport with connections to container trains in the hinterland traffic of the seaports. Therefore, the complementary activities enrich the portfolio by European industrial customers. The Exploris acquisition increases the number of employees at TX Logistik by 500 to a total of 1,200. The fleet will in future consist of 91 TX locomotives and 75 from Exploris. Turnover also grows and could exceed 500 million euros.

The activities of the acquired Exploris companies also include shipping services, carried out by own companies in Germany and Poland; railway shunting services, also in Germany and Poland and its own academy for the training and refresher courses of train drivers. The academy represents an important resource for countering the shortage of qualified personnel, a critical element for the entire railway sector.

The acquisition is now subject to regulatory approval, a necessary condition for the closing of the transaction.

About TX Logistik AG

TX Logistik was founded in 1999 as a private rail transport company and maintains an efficient European network with connections in eleven countries. The company has subsidiaries in Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden as well as local office in Italy. In its Intermodal and Rail Freight divisions, TX Logistik develops comprehensive rail solutions for continental and maritime traffic as well as tailor-made concepts for conventional freight. With around 650 employees and 8.6 billion tonne kilometres, the company generated annual sales of 253 million euros in 2021. Since January 2017, TX Logistik has been wholly owned by Mercitalia Logistics S.p.A., a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.

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