Brambles creates energy container joint venture with Hoover
Brambles and US-based Hoover will form a major provider of container logistics to the oil-and-gas and chemicals industries.
Brambles will merge its energy container businesses with US-based Hoover Container Solutions in a venture that will be the second-biggest provider of container logistics to the oil-and-gas and chemicals industries.
Brambles (BXB) said the joint venture Hoover-Ferguson Group, or HFG, will be a combination of Hoover and its own Ferguson Group and CHEP Catalyst and Chemical Containers units.
It will be owned 50 per cent by Brambles and 50 per cent by Hoover investors, including First Reserve Corp.
“Our interest in HFG will enhance our position in the oil-and-gas and chemicals container logistics sector without the need for additional capital deployment, and creates a strong capital structure for the venture while enabling us to maintain strategic optionality over our future investment,” Brambles chief executive Tom Gorman said.
Brambles, which said it will receive roughly $US75 million from First Reserve, said it expects the deal to be completed in October.
The new company, it said, will be led by Hoover chief executive Donald Young, while Brambles will nominate the chief financial officer.
Separately, Brambles said it expects to write down its oil-and-gas assets by $US38 million, citing weak energy markets.
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