Deals

Carlyle buys rail logistics firm

Carlyle’s purchase of Atlanta, Georgia-based RMI adds to its business services portfolio, while reinforcing investment trends in infrastructure and transport/logistics firms.

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The Carlyle Group has purchased the rail industry’s largest provider of information services, RMI, for an undisclosed amount.

RMI, a 28-year old company based in Atlanta, Georgia, provides web-based transportation and logistics support via its RailConnect programme.

Carlyle’s acquisition of the company will not alter its operating structure; RMI’s executive management team, all of which has invested in the company, will remain in place, according to a statement.

Private equity firms have not only ramped up their global infrastructure investments – many of them rail-related – but have increased investments in tangential industries such as shipping, transport and logistics.

In just the past six months, US firm Apollo won a heated, $2 billion (€1.5 billion) bidding war for Texas-based transport and logistics firm EGL; UK mid-market shop Close Brothers made an estimated four-times return on United Transport International, a freight logistics company, and also sold its stake in shipping firm V.Ship; and US firm Hicks Holdings and Bahrain’s Investcorp teamed up to purchase a “substantial portion” of Greatwide Logistics Services from Fenway Partners for $730 million.