The $40 million-plus sale of the family-owned business marks the third major M&A deal involving a logistics company at Fremantle harbour in recent years.
Qube Logistics has expanded its footprint at Fremantle Harbour after buying family-owned company Stevenson Logistics in a deal believed to be worth more than $40 million.
Stevenson was a third-generation family business, established in the 1930s and led most recently by brothers Ken and Jim Stevenson.
Its key assets included 56,700 square metres of yard space at the Rous Head terminal, including 5,000sqm of warehouses and an 1,800sqm quarantine wash bay.
It also had a fleet of prime movers, trailers and other mobile equipment.
Stevenson’s land holding was strategically valuable, as it was one of just four companies to be allocated land at Rous Head when Fremantle Ports built the site.
The other sites were secured by national players Qube, ACFS and Toll Group.
Qube is Australia’s largest provider of import and export logistics services, operating across 160 locations and with a workforce of over 8,200 employees.
It announced today it had completed three acquisitions across Australia and New Zealand with a total value of $100 million but did not provide a breakdown.
Managing director Paul Digney said the Stevenson acquisition would expand Qube’s capabilities and exposure to the hay and agriculture export market in Western Australia, while offering an opportunity for significant revenue and cost synergies.
Stevenson’s lead adviser on the sale was South Perth firm Octavian Group, while Tottle Partners provided legal advice.
Qube’s legal adviser was Bird & Bird.
The sale comes a year after ASX company Silk Logistics bought Fremantle Freight & Storage Group, which had annual revenue of $29 million.
The acquisition bolstered Silk’s port logistics presence in WA.
The terms of that transaction have changed significantly since the original announcement, according to Silk’s 2023 annual report and an update from a Silk spokesperson.
It had planned to make an upfront payment of $23.6 million, based on enterprise value, along with a performance-based payment of up to $7.8 million.
It ended up making an up-front payment of $19.3 million, on a debt-free basis, and the contingent payment was reduced to $5.6 million.
A third deal in the sector was global shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company's purchase of Fremantle firm Integrated Container Logistics in 2019.
ICL has been integrated with MSC’s logistics arm Medlog.
