Proventis Partners advises PORTRIX LOGISTIC SOFTWARE GmbH on their sale to Descartes Systems Group

Hamburg, 10 May 2021 – Proventis Partners advises the shareholders of PORTRIX LOGISTIC SOFTWARE GmbH on the sale to the Descartes Systems Group Inc.

The transaction

The shareholders of PORTRIX LOGISTIC SOFTWARE, a leading provider of multimodal rate management solutions for logistics providers (LSPs) sold their company to the Descartes Systems Group Inc., the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce. With the acquisition of PORTRIX LOGISTIC SOFTWARE (PLS), Descartes further strengthens its rate management capabilities on the Global Logistics Network.

“Automated rate management tools are critical for LSPs looking to digitize the customer experience,” said Henning Voss, co-founder of PLS and now VP Product Management, Rate Management Solutions at Descartes. “As the momentum for digitization accelerates, the demand for our solutions continues to grow. In particular, we’ve seen an increase in demand for an integrated Descartes Kontainers-PLS solution, making the decision to combine with Descartes a logical next step for the business and our customers. We’re looking forward to taking our existing partnership with Descartes to the next level.”

“The logistics industry is really seeing the benefits that digitization and automation can deliver,” said Edward J. Ryan, Descartes’ CEO. “LSPs that don’t increase their investments in this part of their business risk struggling with higher costs to serve and an inferior customer experience. Our investment in PLS, combined with our recent investments in Kontainers and QuestaWeb, allows us to offer a truly differentiated end-to-end product for LSPs looking to digitize their operations with a pre-integrated solution. Our best-of-breed rate management and online booking tools can also help customers looking to enhance their operations while preserving investments in their existing back-office systems.”

The role of Proventis Partners

Proventis Partners acted as exclusive M&A advisor to the shareholders of PLS and supported them throughout the entire transaction. Services included the preparation of transaction documents, identification of suitable investors, execution of a structured sales process, coordination of the due diligence process and commercial SPA negotiations.

About PORTRIX LOGISTIC SOFTWARE     

Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, PLS has been helping its customers, which include some of the world’s largest LSPs, streamline and automate complex global shipping rate management processes for more than 10 years. The company’s core product, Global Price Management (GPM), is used by customers to enable global shipment routing, pricing, rating and capacity allocation management. PLS‘ solutions integrate with key systems that need fast, accurate, and complete shipping and pricing options, including CRM, transportation management, and customer-facing online booking platforms, such as Descartes Kontainers.

About the Descartes Systems Group     

Descartes (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG) is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use the modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world’s largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Descartes is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and has offices and partners around the world. Learn more at www.descartes.com.

About Proventis Partners

Proventis Partners is a partner-managed M&A advisory firm whose clients include a majority of medium-sized family-owned companies, group subsidiaries as well as private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advisors, Proventis Partners is one of the largest independent M&A advisors in the German-speaking region and looks back on 20 years of M&A experience and more than 300 completed transactions. The M&A consultants with offices in Zurich, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich are active in the sectors Industrials & Chemicals, Business Services, Consumer & Retail, TMT, Healthcare and Energy & Sustainability. The exclusive membership in Mergers Alliance – an international partnership of leading M&A specialists – enables Proventis Partners to support clients in 30 countries in the most important markets worldwide. The members of Mergers Alliance, with over 200 M&A professionals, provide Proventis Partners and thus its clients with unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.