Deals

Deutsche Post Buys Drinks Shipper Hillebrand for $1.8 Billion

All-German deal bolsters group’s seaborne-containers operation
Transaction funded from cash amid Covid boost to parcels arm

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By Jan-Henrik Foerster, Myriam Balezou, and Richard Weiss

August 17, 2021 at 1:00 PM UTC

Updated on

August 17, 2021 at 5:17 PM UTC

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Deutsche Post AG agreed to buy fellow German logistics specialist J.F. Hillebrand Group AG for 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion), boosting its position in the lucrative beverage-transportation market.

Hillebrand was founded 175 years ago as a carrier of wine barrels, and also moves beer, spirits, dairy products, olive oil and bulk liquids. The purchase, announced Tuesday, is Bonn-based Deutsche Post’s biggest since the 2005 acquisition of U.K. freight group Exel Plc for $7 billion.