Consortium including FedEx to buy Poland’s InPost in €7.8 billion deal

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

A consortium including FedEx has agreed to buy Polish delivery firm InPost in a deal that values the company at €7.8 billion (33 billion zloty). The move is intended to provide FedEx with access to InPost’s delivery infrastructure in Europe while helping InPost expand.

The deal, which is expected to be completed in the second half of this year, will see InPost, which has rapidly grown its operations in western Europe in recent years, maintain its brand and continue to be headquartered in Poland and led by its founder and CEO, Rafał Brzoska.

In January, InPost announced that it had received a preliminary takeover offer, but did not disclose the identity of the potential buyer at the time. It has now been revealed that the offer comes from a consortium made up of FedEx and InPost’s existing investors, Advent, A&R, and PPF.

On Monday, InPost said in a statement that a special committee established to review the offer had unanimously supported the deal, finding it to be “in the best interest of all stakeholders”.

Brzoska added that the transaction “will support our next phase of growth”, allowing the firm to “benefit from the expertise, stability and resources” of the consortium.

“Our headquarters, our brand, business management and the core of our innovation capabilities will remain in Poland, which continues to be the blueprint for our successful strategy,” he added.

FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam, meanwhile, hailed InPost’s “strong and successful presence in Europe’s out-of-home delivery segment”, which he would said would “improve the efficiency of our B2C [business-to-consumer] last mile operations, enhance returns, and better serve customers across Europe”.

Under the agreement, FedEx will take a 37% stake, as will investment firm Advent, which currently owns 6%. A&R, the investment vehicle of CEO Brzoska, will increase its holding from around 12.5% to 16%, while Czech investment group PPF will reduce its stake to 10% from 28.75%.

Founded in 2006, InPost has become one of Poland’s most successful companies. Domestically, it pioneered the use of automated parcel machines (APMs), known locally as paczkomaty, a term InPost has fought a legal battle to stop its rivals from using.

The lockers allow customers to drop off and collect parcels at any time of day or night, seven days a week. InPost currently operates more than 28,000 such machines in Poland.

Following its domestic success, the company expanded abroad and now runs around 61,000 parcel lockers across nine countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain.

Last year, InPost acquired Yodel, one of Britain’s biggest parcel delivery companies, as well as Spanish delivery firm Sending.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main Image credit: InPost (press materials)

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.