France's Norbert Dentressangle soars 36% post deal with US-based XPO Logistics

Shares in French logistics firm Norbert Dentressangle soared in Paris trade after US-based XPO Logistics took over the firm for about €3.24bn (£2.31bn, $3.56bn ), including debt.

Shares in Norbert were trading 36.27% higher at €216.80 at 9.57am local time, on 29 April, valuing the firm at €2.13bn.

Shares in XPO jumped 10.95% to $42.45 after the bell in New York trade overnight following the news, valuing the firm at $3.38bn.

Founder Norbert Dentressangle will sell his family's entire 67% stake in the Lyon-based firm for €217.50 per share, a 34% premium to the stock's close on 27 April.

XPO will launch a tender offer for the remaining shares at the same price.

Morgan Stanley has provided a financing commitment of up to $2.6bn, XPO said in a statement.

The deal will make XPO one of the top 10 logistics companies in the world and give it access to Europe's largest fleet network "through a mix of 7,700 owned trucks, 3,200 trucks contracted through owner-operators and access to an additional 12,000 independent carriers", the US-firm said in the statement.

XPO CEO Bradley Jacobs commented: "This is a defining moment in the growth of XPO. Our planned acquisition of Norbert Dentressangle will catapult XPO to a top ten global logistics company. It will more than triple our EBITDA to $545m and increase our revenue to about $8.5bn upon completion of the tender offer, nearly achieving our 2017 financial targets two years ahead of plan.

"The acquisition of Norbert Dentressangle is a major leap forward, but we're still in the early innings of our long-term growth plan..."

The deal was first reported by Bloomberg.

The acquisition will be the biggest in XPO's history, according to Thomson Reuters data, and its second this year after the purchase of UX Specialized Logistics in February.