Grupo Ultra acquires União Terminais
Valor Econômico - 06/09/2008
Unipar's União Terminais, one of the largest operators of liquid bulks of the port of Santos (SP) - among other locations - was sold to Tequimar, a subsidiary of Ultracargo, a logistics company of the Ultra group. The deal, which amounts to R$ 510 million (US$ 312.9 million), including R$ 27 million (US$ 16.6 million) in debts, executed on the Friday night, signals the effort of both groups in concentrating operations in their main activities: petrochemical and logistics. The growth of the market was what led Grupo Ultra to become interested in União Terminais, which has a terminal in Santos (SP), another one in Rio de Janeiro, and shares with Vopak the administration of tanks in the port of Paranaguá (PR). The President of the Grupo Ultra, Pedro Wongstchowski, reminded that Ultracargo, which is already a leader in the operation of storage and handling of liquid cargo in the country, with a 21% share market, gains an additional share of 9% from União Terminais. The capacity of Ultracargo is 353 thousand cubic meters. União Terminais has 149 thousand and, the conclusion of the improvement of another 21 thousand cubic meters in the terminal of Santos is expected for this month, which is the result of R$ 40 million (US$ 24.5 million) in investments. The acquisition places Ultracargo as the largest company of the segment in Latin America. The expectation of the group is that the process of integration of União Terminais generates profits of R$ 200 million (US$ 122.7 million), resulting from the joint operation of the terminals, management consolidation, and tax synergies.