The biggest names in private equity dealmaking will be coming together Thursday in New York for the one-day Benesch private equity conference, in a market that despite the easing freight recession has held up as measured by volume.
The transportation group of the Benesch law firm holds the conference every year soon after Thanksgiving. Virtually every key dealmaker in the logistics space attends, and the lineup is always filled with speakers who are in the middle of logistics deals that are getting done or trying to.
A recent deal that will likely be discussed among the attendees is the purchase by Heniff Transportation Systems of the Wisconsin-based Hagen Johnson Group.
It’s an acquisition for an undisclosed price in the bulk transportation field. Hagen Johnson has a fleet of food-grade tank trucks, a tank-cleaning washing operation and a liquid freight brokerage.
The Tenney Group was the advisory firm that worked with Heniff on the deal. According to a spokeswoman for Tenney, Hagen Johnson has about 40 food-grade trailers in its fleet.
Heniff, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, does have its own food-grade tank truck fleet, a tank-cleaning segment and a brokerage, the spokeswoman said: Carry Transit, Total Clean and Heniff Logistics, respectively. The Hagen Johnson operations will be consolidated in those groups.
The 40 trucks at Hagen Johnson are dwarfed by a Heniff operation that currently has about 2,000 trucks, 5,000 trailers and 100 physical locations. It lists its expertise as chemical transport, food-grade transport, rail transloading, ISO depot operations, equipment maintenance, tank cleaning services and logistics.
Hagen was founded as a milk hauler in 1979.
The Hagen Johnson acquisition was one of two that Heniff completed in the waning days of November. It also purchased food hauler Weinrich Truck Lines.
The Hagen Johnson webpage has a link to an article in Bulk Transporter magazine, announcing the Weinrich acquisition. The article reports that Weinrich has about 35 power units.
The numbers from Logisyn
The pace of logistics acquisitions overall has been holding up, according to advisory firm Logisyn Advisors’ monthly report on mergers and acquisitions data.
According to the report, worldwide logistics deals in October totaled 36. That was up two from September. In July, the total was 28.
Going back to January, the number was 30. But in November 2023, the advisory group counted 43 deals.
In its latest monthly report, Ron Lentz, managing partner at Logisyn, said recent data from Pitchbook, the data provider on venture capital and private equity, gave a summary of what is going on in that investment source that he said made him optimistic about the future for logistics M&A.
While there are some areas of concerns – “PE firms can’t afford as much as previously; multiples of EBITDA have been reduced” – Lentz said estimates are that there is $2.8 trillion to $3.1 trillion for all types of private equity investments. That contrasts with less than $1 trillion in 2015.
Firms have been putting more equity and less leverage into deals, Lentz wrote, with the 50% equity threshold having been crossed recently. That is up from an average of 41% in the 10 years leading up to 2022. The combination of a possible move back down toward the 10-year norm and what Lentz described as the “dry powder” of that large pile of cash sitting on the sidelines could be setting up a strong 2025, he wrote.
“With less equity contribution needed for acquisitions, is it time for some of that dry powder to go to work in 2025?” Lentz wrote. “We shall see, but the trends are looking good!”
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