The Midlands team of global investment bank GCA Altium has acted as advisor to Nichirei Holding Holland, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nichirei Logistics Group Inc on the acquisition of the cold storage division of Norish plc for a consideration of GBP65.7 million.
The specialist division currently operates from six strategically located sites, with key facilities located in Brierley Hill in the West Midlands and Wrexham in North Wales. It provides more than 47,500 racked, temperature-controlled pallet spaces in the UK.
The company provides supply chain solutions for businesses on a local, regional, and national basis by way of storage, handling, freezing, de-vanning, picking and cross-docking. It is also certified to handle export cargo to China, the United States, the European Union, and other countries.
Nichirei Logistics Group operates the world’s sixth-largest refrigerated storage capacity. It has been developing its cold storage logistics business in Europe since 1988. In the UK, Nichirei offer customs clearance and transportation services through its Thermotraffic subsidiary and value-added services (such as thawing and freezing services) in inland areas through Kevin Hancock Limited. This acquisition will enable the Nichirei Logistics Group to make a full-scale entry into the refrigerated warehousing business in the UK.
GCA Altium mobilised a cross-border advisory team, with colleagues both in the UK and Japan, to support Nichirei with this acquisition. The transaction is scheduled to complete in October 2021, subject to shareholder approval.
Jeremy Harrison, Managing Director at GCA Altium, says: “We are delighted to have supported a long-standing corporate client of GCA Altium on this UK based acquisition. We quickly established a cross-border team to advise Nichirei throughout a competitive process to acquire Norish’s cold storage business. With plans to invest further in expanding storage capacity, Nichirei will be creating new jobs and much needed, sustainable, cold storage capacity in the UK.”
