By Mike Stone and Pamela Barbaglia
(Reuters) - French shipping and transit company Geodis SA is near a deal to pay close to $800 million (512 million pounds) for U.S. contract shipping provider Ozburn-Hessey Logistics, LLC in what would be the latest in a string of logistics tie-ups this year, people familiar with the deal said.
Private equity firms Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and Hyde Park Holdings LLC are selling the U.S. logistics company. The rise of e-commerce has increased companies' demand for shipping, making logistics companies more valuable. Private equity firms have recently been cashing in on that trend.
The price in this deal represents a multiple of about 10 times Ozburn-Hessey Logistics' $80 million of annual earnings, the people said.
The deal is slated to be announced in the coming weeks according to a person familiar with the matter. The people asked not to be named because the deliberations were private.
Geodis and Ozburn-Hessey Logistics did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither of the New York-based private equity firms responded to requests for comment.
Founded in 1951 and based in Brentwood, Tennessee, Ozburn-Hessey Logistics has more than 120 distribution centres. It has customers in the apparel, electronics, healthcare, food and beverage, and consumer packaged goods industries. Clients include Starbucks Corp (O:SBUX), Apple Inc (O:AAPL), Red Bull and General Motors Co (N:GM).
In April, France's Norbert Dentressangle SA (PA:GNDP) agreed to sell itself to Stamford Connecticut-based XPO Logistics Inc (N:XPO) in a deal valued at $3.53 billion, including debt, making XPO one of the top 10 logistics companies in the world.
Also in April, FedEx Corp (N:FDX) announced a deal to buy Dutch delivery service company TNT Express (AS:TNTE) for 4.4 billion euro ($4.9 billion).
FedEx's main rival, package delivery company, United Parcel Service Inc (N:UPS) agreed to pay $1.8 billion for Chicago-based Coyote Logistics from private equity firm Warburg Pincus to expand its full-truckload services in July.