Latest news with #WiseTech
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Hot Money Monday: WiseTech's $2bn power play, and one small logistics tech stock stirring interest
Cargo ships go smart with AI WiseTech muscles up with $2.1bn move on US freight kingpin Yojee's freight-tech play quietly takes aim at the big guys International shipping has always been the beating heart of global trade. For centuries, it was sailboats and steamers ferrying spices, silk and silver across oceans. Then came the age of steel hulls, steam engines, and containerisation ie; Malcolm McLean's game-changing box-on-a-ship idea that made global trade cheap and insanely efficient. But now, the industry's entering a whole new phase; less grease, more code. The modern cargo ship isn't just floating metal anymore, it's a data machine. IoT sensors beam back live engine diagnostics and cargo conditions. Ports run on automation and smart cranes. And while the crew's still onboard (for now), autonomous ships are already being tested. And that's just the beginning. Blockchain is also making paperwork disappear. Then there's the green push. With pressure mounting over emissions, shipping giants are rolling out LNG engines, wind-assist tech, and hybrid electric vessels. WiseTech's $2.1bn play to run global trade At the centre of this digital shipping revolution is one Australian company powering the pipes of global logistics. WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) is the $36 billion Aussie tech powerhouse behind the curtain. Its flagship platform, CargoWise, is already the cockpit for freight forwarders, customs agents and supply chain operators in more than 170 countries. If something's moving across borders anywhere in the world, odds are, CargoWise is helping steer it. But WiseTech doesn't just want to be the brain behind the freight anymore, the company said it's gunning to be the "operating system" of global trade. To get there, the company made a monster move last week: a $2.1 billion cash deal to snap up US-based E2open, the biggest acquisition in WiseTech's history. The name might not mean much outside the freight world, but inside it, E2open is serious muscle. This is a company that connects over half a million businesses and tracks more than 18 billion transactions a year. What does it bring to WiseTech? The missing puzzle pieces ie; domestic logistics, trade compliance, carrier hookups, and planning smarts. WiseTech said the two firms fit together with barely any customer overlap. More importantly, it sets WiseTech up to build something far bigger: a true multi-sided marketplace. A place where ocean liners, freight brokers, warehouse managers and even small shippers can plug in, trade, and optimise in one unified system. Founder and chief innovation officer Richard White said, "Acquiring e2open is a strategically significant step in achieving our expanded vision to be the operating system for global trade and logistics.' 'This is a great deal for WiseTech's business and e2open's shareholders, for all our customers, the industry and ultimately the end consumer.' Yojee's making moves in freight tech, too Sure, WiseTech is the heavyweight in logistics tech, but it's not the only ASX stock worth watching in this space. Over the past 12 months, Yojee (ASX:YOJ) 's stock price has surged more than sixfold, a move that's turned a few heads in the small-cap crowd. While the $85 million-capped company is also in the logistics tech game, its focus is a bit different: freight forwarding. Freight forwarding isn't exactly known for its slick software. For years, the industry's run on a patchwork of spreadsheets, phone calls, and expensive old-school systems that don't talk to each other. Yojee is trying to change that by stitching it all together. The company's flagship software is called Mosaic, a next-gen freight forwarding platform. It's built to simplify the way forwarders and shippers manage cargo, giving users a single interface to book jobs, track shipments, and connect with partners across the chain. Mosaic is also designed with open architecture, so it can slot into existing business systems. That includes connections to things like accounting software (like Xero), or SMS services like Twilio. The platform runs on a 'pay-per-job' model, which means no big up-front licenses or lock-in contracts, making it a flexible alternative in a market that's historically been dominated by costly enterprise software. There's even an AI assistant called Tess already built in to help automate routine tasks. Customs is another pain point Yojee's now tackling. In April, the company launched a joint venture with SmartClear called Smart Yojee, aiming to bring real-time customs messaging and compliance tech into the Mosaic platform. And while all this is still rolling out, Yojee has already landed a notable pilot customer. In March, Germany's Röhlig Logistics, a major global freight and logistics firm, signed on to use Yojee's Transport Carrier Management System in Singapore. The rollout began in May and, if the pilot goes well, could expand further.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Insane amount of money baby boomer has in his self-managed superannuation fund - and how he did it
A software billionaire has a breathtaking $1.7billion in his superannuation fund - and he's set to be one of those hit hardest by Labor's new super tax. Charles Gibbon, 76, a director of software developer WiseTech, could be as one of Australia's most enthusiastic investors in self-managed super. His family's Fabemu No. 2 self-managed super fund has 15,594,630 shares in WiseTech - but will be thumped by Labor's new tax if it becomes law on July 1. If his stock rises 10 per cent during the next financial year, taking its price to $119.65, the value of the super fund would increase from $1.696billion to $1.866billion. Labor plan to bring in a new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains - based on purely notional profits, not real ones - in super accounts with balances above $3million That $169.67million increase in value in Mr Gibbon's super fund would land him a tax bill of $25.4million just on those notional him selling a single share. The reclusive entrepreneur, originally from New Zealand 's South Island, has been a WiseTech board member since 2006. He made his eye-watering $2billion fortune as an early investor in WiseTech, founded in 1994. During the early days of the internet, the company started writing code for the freight industry. It is now the 21st biggest firm on the Australian Securities Exchange and a world leader in supply chain software. Mr Gibbon was instrumental in the success of the $36billion firm and stood by embattled WiseTech founder Richard White when others directors quit in February, following a string of revelations and allegations about White's lovelife. He splits his time between Sydney's eastern suburbs, where he lives in a Woollahra mansion with his wife Claire, and the NSW South Coast, where he has a six-hectare weekender at Bellawongarah, near Berry, and beachfront land at Gerringong. He grew up in Invercargill before studying a Bachelor of Science majoring in pure maths at the University of Otago and becoming a London-based stock analyst. Despite his wealth, he shuns the spotlight and rarely makes an appearance on Australia's glamorous social circuit for the well-heeled wealthy. Mr Gibbon joined The Australian Financial Review's elite billionaire Rich List in 2022 after his company's share price surged from $11.80 in March 2020 to $55.95. As of Thursday, WiseTech's share price had climbed to $108.77 - almost doubling in just three years despite some hiccups earlier this year during boardroom turmoil. The share price has catapaulted his super fund portfolio through the billion-dollar mark - and left him in the crosshairs for Labor's new super tax, which is aimed at the super rich. But experts warn the tax could have unintended consequences and punish budding start up companies before they have a chance to flourish like WiseTech did. Tax planning accountant Ben Johnston, a director of Johnston Advisory, predicts that tech start-ups would be worse off if the the new law comes into force on July 1. Wealthy self-managed super funds may be forced to sell-off assets to avoid paying the new tax on the notional unrealised gains, hampering the growth of young firms 'They rely on those big backers to have their investment in there to see them through the start-up phase,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'If they start cashing out of them in response, to free up liquidity within their SMSF, that will potentially be an issue for start-ups.' Tax office data showed that of the start-ups with more than $50million in assets, 23.2 per cent invested in listed shares on the Australian Securities Exchange while 7.5 per cent had investments in unlisted entities, which can include start-ups that aren't on the share market. Australia was home to 616,941 self-managed super funds at the end of June last year. They had 1.142million members with multiple people allowed to be members. The Greens want the threshold reduced to $2million but indexed for inflation. Labor is proposing a $3million threshold that isn't indexed for inflation. Overall earning taxes would double to 30 per cent above this threshold, which includes the new 15 per cent tax on unrealised gains, based on the change in a total superannuation balance. The total headline tax take includes a 15 per cent tax on earnings over a financial year, including income from a self-managed super fund investment like a house that is being rented out, proceeds from an asset sale or appreciation in the value of an asset. Earnings would only be taxed at the accumulation but not the retirement phase of super when someone can access their superannuation at 60. The re-elected federal government now only needs the Greens to get its legislation through the Senate. But until that occurred, Mr Johnston said it was hard to give advice to clients about whether they had to sell high-performing assets to avoid Labor's proposed new tax. 'I'm just telling them to review their liquidity first and foremost because a lot of it's crystal ball,' he said. 'The problem with this too is the uncertainty - it's hard to truly respond to it because the taxes on the unrealised gain. 'If you're going to take really fundamental action around it, not knowing on what gain you may make; again you're assuming you are going to make a gain in the first place. 'To then go and sell property or shares in potentially profitable companies just for the sake of a potential tax problem down the track, it's also a big call and not necessarily the right one.' The problem would be more pronounced in self-managed super funds that have a higher concentration of assets like farms that were lucrative but harder to sell to have cash to pay a tax bill. 'If you've got a self-managed super fund with $10million in say real estate or in rural property or land or whatever, and you've got very limited cash reserves, you've got a real problem then,' Mr Johnston said. After new senators take their seats in July, Labor could pass the Treasury Laws Amendment (Better Targeted Superannuation Concessions and Other Measures) Bill in 2023 after that date, with support from 11 Greens senators, and backdate it to July 1. Labor would no longer need the support of moderate, left-leaning crossbenchers like Jacqui Lambie or David Pocock, who have expressed concerns about taxing unrealised gains. Fabemu sold 1.5million shares for $200million in early December.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Logistics M&As: E2Open Taken Private in $2.1B Deal, UPS Sells Ware2Go to Stord
Supply chain visibility technology provider E2open has been taken private in a $2.1 billion acquisition by logistics software solutions provider WiseTech Global. The sale gives E2open a new home more than a year after the company initiated a strategic review in March 2024, and enables the Australia-headquartered WiseTech to scale its U.S. presence. More from Sourcing Journal US-Based Chinese Logistics Firms Caught Using Counterfeit USPS Labels Canadian Courier Strike Risks Intensify at Canada Post, DHL Express Up Close: In Conversation with Relex Solutions' Dr. Madhav Durbha E2open will join another freight tech business under the WiseTech Global umbrella, CargoWise, which is a logistics operations software primarily used by freight forwarders and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) like Ceva Logistics, Seko Logistics and DHL Global Forwarding. Although WiseTech already has 16,500 customers across CargoWise and its other platforms like multi-modal rail solutions provider Blume Global, the acquisition will add about 5,600 customers to WiseTech's network. The cloud-based E2open platform will also give WiseTech access to more than 500,000 manufacturing, logistics, channel and distribution partners, tracking more than 18 billion transactions every year. With E2open in the fold, WiseTech will have direct connectivity to ocean carriers like Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Maersk and CMA CGM, with the technology tracking 67 million containers annually. Roughly 18.5 percent of global export container bookings are managed through E2open's platforms. The WiseTech team sees the E2open product site as a complement to the wider CargoWise ecosystem, since it includes tools for supply chain planning and trade compliance, among others. 'These product opportunities extend our reach in key adjacent markets such as global trade management and supply chain planning whilst filling in gaps in our own products that would have required substantial investment over time,' said Richard White, founder and executive chair at WiseTech Global, in a Monday morning briefing. 'These extended capabilities will be attractive to existing and new customers alike and allow our combined customer base access to new and expanded capabilities and new geographies and markets.' Andrew Cartledge, interim CEO of WiseTech Global, said there was 'very little overlap' in products between both solutions. WiseTech sees an opportunity to take advantage of the growing need for supply chain and logistics software solutions, citing Gartner data indicating that total spend on these technologies would expand from $28 billion in 2024 to $57 billion in 2025. The deal is expected to be accretive to earnings per share in the first year. For WiseTech, this is the biggest transaction thus far for the company, which has made 55 acquisitions totaling $1.2 billion over the past 10 years, according to the presentation. E2open is no stranger to making deals either, having invested its own $2.7 billion in acquisitions since 2016, including a $1.7 billion acquisition of logistics software company BluJay Solutions. WiseTech is taking on $3 billion in debt to finance the deal, with E2open stockholders set to receive $3.30 per share in cash. The per-share purchase price represents a premium of approximately 28 percent over the company's closing stock price on Friday, the last trading day prior to the Monday announcement, and a premium of approximately 68 percent over the company's closing stock price on April 30, the day prior to media reports regarding WiseTech's evaluation of a potential acquisition of the business. E2open and WiseTech will continue to operate as independent companies until the transaction closes, which is expected in the second half of the 2025 calendar year. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals. WiseTech has already secured the written approval of shareholders representing more than 50 percent of voting rights, the company said. The deal follows another logistics acquisition that caught the industry's attention, with fulfillment services and commerce enablement technology Stord unveiling earlier this month that it acquired warehouse and inventory management solutions provider Ware2Go from UPS. Terms of that deal have not been disclosed, but the announcement came just three days after Stord revealed it raised more than $200 million in combined equity and debt financing at a valuation of $1.5 billion. The acquisition and the funding are unrelated, Stord says. Stord will become a UPS partner as part of the acquisition. Stord is bringing on 21 new fulfillment centers into its network with the Ware2Go deal, amounting to an extra 2.5 million square feet of warehouse space. This expands on Stord's 11 fulfillment nodes across 13 buildings in North America, as well as two locations in the U.K. and one in the Netherlands. Stord also has an expanded network of more than 70 partner warehouses worldwide. The company seeks to power checkout, delivery, fulfillment and returns for growing, high-volume SMBs that want to better compete with online retail giants via its combination of technologies and warehouses. It manages over $6 billion of commerce annually through its fulfillment, warehousing, transportation, and operator-built software suite including OMS, pre- and post-purchase, and WMS platforms. Ware2Go's service offerings include direct-to-consumer shipping, Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) for Amazon sellers and retail-compliant B2B shipping. Stord has sought to expand its own horizons over the past year via acquisitions. The company scooped up Pitney Bowes' e-commerce fulfillment business and freight and logistics platform ProPack in 2024. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
WiseTech Acquires E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (ETWO) in $2.1 Billion Software Deal
The cloud-based supply chain software provider, E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO), announced on May 25 its agreement to be acquired by the Australian logistics tech company WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC), in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.1 billion. A view of a modern city skyline from the top of a financial institution, symbolizing the company's investments in the local area. As per the agreement between the two companies, shareholders of E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) will receive $3.30 per share, a 68% premium over its stock price on April 30, the day before rumours about the acquisition emerged. It is worth noting that, on May 19, Morgan Stanley maintained an Equal-Weight rating on the stock with a $2.10 price target, while raising its bullish scenario to $4.05. The move forecasted a cautious optimism around the company's strategic alternatives. WiseTech, known for its CargoWise platform, has turned to a consortium of nine international banks to fund the deal through a new $3 billion debt facility. In addition to adding key capabilities in trade compliance, procurement, and channel management, the acquisition of E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) comes with a network of over 500,000 partners and more than 18 billion transactions tracked annually. With its acquisition, WiseTech positions itself as an end-to-end logistics solution provider. This largest deal to date in WiseTech's history comes at a time when both companies are heavily scrutinized. WiseTech founder Richard White recently transitioned to executive chairman after governance-related controversies, while E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) faced uncertainties arising from broader macroeconomic pressures. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025 after regulatory approvals. E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) will delist from the NYSE post the deal closure ETWO could be a potential investment opportunity. But our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ETWO and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the READ NEXT: 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now and 11 Oversold Global Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds Disclosure: None. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
WiseTech Acquires E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (ETWO) in $2.1 Billion Software Deal
The cloud-based supply chain software provider, E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO), announced on May 25 its agreement to be acquired by the Australian logistics tech company WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC), in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.1 billion. A view of a modern city skyline from the top of a financial institution, symbolizing the company's investments in the local area. As per the agreement between the two companies, shareholders of E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) will receive $3.30 per share, a 68% premium over its stock price on April 30, the day before rumours about the acquisition emerged. It is worth noting that, on May 19, Morgan Stanley maintained an Equal-Weight rating on the stock with a $2.10 price target, while raising its bullish scenario to $4.05. The move forecasted a cautious optimism around the company's strategic alternatives. WiseTech, known for its CargoWise platform, has turned to a consortium of nine international banks to fund the deal through a new $3 billion debt facility. In addition to adding key capabilities in trade compliance, procurement, and channel management, the acquisition of E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) comes with a network of over 500,000 partners and more than 18 billion transactions tracked annually. With its acquisition, WiseTech positions itself as an end-to-end logistics solution provider. This largest deal to date in WiseTech's history comes at a time when both companies are heavily scrutinized. WiseTech founder Richard White recently transitioned to executive chairman after governance-related controversies, while E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) faced uncertainties arising from broader macroeconomic pressures. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025 after regulatory approvals. E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ETWO) will delist from the NYSE post the deal closure ETWO could be a potential investment opportunity. But our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ETWO and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the READ NEXT: 10 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now and 11 Oversold Global Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
