SYNCREON, the Irish transport and logistics company formerly known as Walsh Western International, has bought US firm NAL Worldwide Holdings for an estimated $35 million (€24 million).
The acquisition of NAL will give Syncreon combined yearly revenues of $725 million, according to the company’s president and chief executive Brian Enright. NAL, which is based in Illinois, had revenues of $75 million in 2009.
Syncreon was financing the purchase from cash on the company’s balance sheet, said Mr Enright, who declined to disclose the group’s profitability after the deal.
Part of the purchase price relates to a two-year earn-out agreement under which NAL must meet certain performance targets.
The acquisition adds 550 staff, six facilities and a national network of 150 agents in the United States to Syncreon’s existing workforce of about 9,000 employees and more than 50 facilities.
Mr Enright said NAL was a logistics group which operated primarily in telecoms on the roll-out of infrastructural projects. NAL, which also services the retail, high-tech and healthcare industries, was majority-owned by Chicago private equity firm Lake Capital.
“NAL considerably adds to our capabilities in the key US market and brings us access to new sectors, customers, capabilities and human talent,” said Mr Enright.
Walsh Western was renamed Syncreon in 2007 after the Irish firm acquired US firm TDS Logistics for $400 million.
The group, whose parent firm is registered in Ireland as an unlimited company, relocated its headquarters from Dublin to Auburn Hills in Michigan, north of Detroit, in February 2008.
Mr Enright divides his time between Michigan and a home in Greystones, Co Wicklow. Syncreon has offices in Dublin and is active in more than 20 countries.
The company is owned by Mr Enright and his father Michael, and New York-based private equity firm GenNx360 Capital Partners, which purchased a stake of about 33 per cent last March.
Syncreon has expanded rapidly since coming under the direct control of Brian Enright in 2000.
The company, then Walsh Western, had sales of €38 million in 1999 but was primarily focused on Ireland, Britain and western Europe, said Mr Enright.
The company has since grown significantly and had projected revenues of $600 million in 2009, according to a press release issued by GenNx360 in March.
Syncreon bought TDS Logistics, which specialised in logistics for the motor industry to gain market share in the US and China. TDS clients include BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen. The purchase enabled the Enrights to weigh up US acquisitions, of which the NAL deal is the first since 2007.
