Selling a marine logistics business in the UK

You own a UK marine logistics business worth between £5M and £50M in enterprise value. A port services operator (stevedoring, terminal services, cargo handling). A shipping agency business. A specialist marine equipment leasing platform. A specialist offshore services operator serving energy, infrastructure or defence. A specialist marine survey, towage or workboat business.

The buyer pool is international. Larger UK and European marine groups acquire for capability or geographic fill-in. PE consolidators are active in defined specialist marine niches. Infrastructure-style investors target asset-heavy long-life platforms (specialist marine equipment leasing, port services) for predictable yield. Overseas strategics — particularly Dutch, Norwegian, German — acquire UK marine platforms for UK and European capability.

We engage 12 to 24 months before a target exit. The longer window matters because the highest-return preparation work in marine logistics — addressing fleet condition and survey position, documenting Maritime & Coastguard compliance, surfacing international revenue cleanly, and (for asset-heavy businesses) deciding the asset strategy — takes time.

This is not the right fit if your business is below £5M EV. It is also not the right fit if Maritime & Coastguard regulatory positions or survey items are unresolved at material assets; those need to be addressed in the readiness phase.

Buyer diligence in UK marine logistics M&A is shaped by asset, regulatory and international factors. Five items dominate.

Fleet age, condition and survey position first. Buyers value cash earnings net of sustainable capex and surveys. Recent surveys, clean class records, and a credible capex bridge support stronger pricing. Asset-heavy marine businesses with deferred capex or open survey items trade at a discount until resolved.

Customer concentration and contract structure second. Marine logistics businesses often have anchor customers representing 25-40% of revenue. What matters is contractual position, length of relationship, switching cost (often substantial because of operational integration and equipment compatibility), and the embedded position in the customer's qualified supplier list.

Regulatory standing third. Maritime & Coastguard Agency standing, classification society relationships, environmental compliance, port operator licences where applicable. Clean compliance history materially supports both certainty and price.

International revenue and customer mix fourth. UK-only marine businesses trade at one range. Material international revenue — typically 25%+ — supports a wider buyer pool and stronger pricing because it widens the strategic acquirer set.

Specialist capability fifth. Sub-sector specialist capability (offshore wind, decommissioning, specialist heavy-lift, hyperbaric, specialist towage) supports premium pricing because of barriers to entry. Generic marine logistics businesses trade at the lower end of the range.

Our six-stage process runs senior-led across the full mandate. For marine logistics, three things shape execution.

Asset and regulatory diligence run on heavier calendars than commercial diligence. Class society review, survey position analysis, MCA compliance review, environmental review. We design the process around this calendar from the start.

Buyer mapping is international. UK marine strategics form one pool; European strategics (Dutch, Norwegian, German) form a deeper one; PE consolidators in specialist marine form another; infrastructure-style investors targeting asset-heavy platforms form a fourth. Our buyer mapping covers all four, supported by our proprietary technology layer.

Cross-border tax and regulatory structuring is built into the process design early. International buyers introduce structuring threads that need planning rather than reaction. See the logistics pillar for context and container leasing for the closest adjacent niche.