Today, Blume Global (Blume), a premier supplier of a solution supporting intermodal rail in North America, was acquired by WiseTech Global, the creator of the industry-leading logistics execution software CargoWise, for US$414 million. Blume, a company with its headquarters in the US, is being purchased from funds run by EQT, Apollo, and other minority owners.
Blume manages intermodal containers and chassis on behalf of six of the seven Class 1 US railways, maritime carriers, and other intermodal equipment suppliers, including international freight forwarders and Beneficial Cargo Owners. North America is the largest domestic logistics market in the world (BCOs). A recurring revenue company with significant growth, Blume is anticipated to produce sales in the region of US$65 million to US$70 million in FY24, which would represent annual growth of 45% to 55%. Prior to operational efficiencies, Blume anticipates achieving standalone FY24 EBITDA margins of about 10% and reaching cash-flow breakeven by the end of the year.
Richard White, Founder and CEO of WiseTech Global, said: “This is another strategically significant acquisition that follows our acquisition of Envase Technologies last month. It further extends our capability in one of our six key CargoWise development priority areas, integrating rail into our landside logistics offering in North America, the most complex and largest logistics region in the world. Blume also brings significant new talent, a portfolio of other valuable product capabilities, and further enhances our product development skill set. This transaction demonstrates WiseTech’s continued investment in its CargoWise ecosystem, improving visibility and process efficiencies end-to-end across the supply chain for our customers.”
Blume Global’s CEO Pervinder Johar said: “Joining the WiseTech Global group means greater scale and resources to make logistics processes more productive, agile, dependable, and sustainable with innovative execution and visibility solutions. We want to thank the team at Apollo for helping to stand up and grow Blume as a standalone company and are thrilled to embark on this next chapter to drive even greater digital innovation in this sector.”
Justin Korval, Partner in Apollo Hybrid Value, and Antoine Munfakh, Partner in Apollo Private Equity, said: “This transaction underscores the tremendous growth of Blume since establishing it as an independent company in 2019. By providing meaningful growth capital and strategic support, Blume’s management team was empowered to pursue an ambitious expansion strategy and successfully develop an industry leading supply-chain technology platform. We wish Pervinder and the entire team the best in this exciting next chapter.”
