APL Logistics launching tech unit after GATX purchase

APL Logistics, which an-nounced on 8 January that it would buy Jacksonville, Fla -based GATX Logistics, will increase the scope of its services connecting major international trading areas, and will establish a separate company to handle logistics information management, the company's top executive said on Tuesday. APL is focused on developing integrated supply chain solutions on a global scale, especially where they connect key economies," said Dick Metzler, the company's chief executive. "We want to be the leader in intercontinental supply chain management."

Metzler said the $210 million purchase of GATX Logistics would allow APL logistics to offer an end-to-end service between Asia, as a supplier base, and the United States, as a consumer market. Buying GATX gives the company the domestic distribution and warehousing capabilities to fit within its existing import logistics functions. Metzler said he was negotiating similar deals in Europe that he hoped would reach fruition within the first quarter of 2001. The GATX purchase gives APL some $300 million in extra revenue, increasing overall revenue by an estimated 70%. Metzler also said APL Logistics would establish a new company in Oakland, Calif., where the APL group is based, to provide data management services, including information from the recently announced multi-carrier Internet service Global Trade Networks. APL Ltd. is considered to have been a founding member of that alliance. Metzler said the new company would help centralize all information coming through the expanding APL Logistics network, but would t name the company or give further details.

The APL group has typically taken a lead among carriers in use of the Internet to serve its customers. ACS, a sister subsidiary to APL Logistics, last year expanded its Web-based NetTrac service to allow customers to track their cargo on the Internet down to bar-code level. Metzler said ACS would work with the new company. He also said the company this year would look into partnerships with software and service providers that specialize in cross-border trade transactions and information management, such as landed cost calculation and denied party screening services. Joe Nicosia, outgoing president and chief executive at GATX Logistics, said he expects APL Logistics' business to grow in Latin and South America, because of GATX's current capabilities there. Nicosia said he will stay on with APL Logistics in an advisory role, but his job title has not been defined. Metzler said he wasn't prepared to announce the new structure of APL Logistics, but that GATX would play a significant role in the ongoing organizat on.

"One of the key attractions of the deal was this leadership team that's here. There are some very talented guys and gals, " he said. GATX Corp. Sold 81% of the company in June 2000, split between Oak Hill Capital partners, a venture capital firm; and Stephens Group, a banking and investment company. It sold another 18% to Oak Hill in December, with senior management retaining 1% of the company. On completion of the deal, APL, an business subsidiary of Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines group, will own 100% of GATX Logistics.