Aves One AG further expands asset portfolio by adding 500 new swap bodies with a volume of around EUR 4.6 million

Aves One AG, a strongly growing holder of long-life logistics assets, has acquired 500 brand new swap bodies with a volume of approximately EUR 4.6 million. The delivery is scheduled to take place by the end of 2020. All swap bodies are leased to the Hamburg logistics company Hermes Germany GmbH (Hermes). Swap bodies are interchangeable load carriers that can be mounted on various carrier vehicles and are used primarily in road traffic. An advantage of the swap bodies is the shortening of loading and unloading, so that standing and waiting times can be minimized.

Even though the strategic focus remains on the growth of the rail portfolio, the relatively smaller but high-margin swap body business remains attractive. With this transaction, the Aves swap body portfolio grows to around 9,300 units. The segment's contribution to annual revenues will increase to around EUR 12 million, which corresponds to slightly more than 10 % of the revenues generated by Aves One AG in the 2019 financial year. The demand for swap bodies is mainly due to the continued growth in E-commerce revenues, which has been growing by an average of around 11.7 % per year since 2011. It is predicted that the number of parcel shipments in Germany will amount to around 3.7 billion shipments this year and grow to 4.5 billion shipments by 2024. The three major providers in the industry DHL, Hermes and dpd rely on swap bodies from Aves, among others. With an average age of around 6 years, Aves also has a very young and almost fully leased swap body portfolio.

"It is particularly noteworthy that all of the acquired units are leased long-term to the well-known and creditworthy market player Hermes," says Tobias Aulich, member of the Management Board of Aves One AG. "The outbreak of the Corona crisis has accelerated the growth of the E-commerce industry in Germany. The parcel business is also developing in a similar way. Therefore, a stable capacity utilisation of the transport units can be expected in the future", Aulich continues.