FCL chief warns on impact of Toll takeover of Patrick

<p>FCL Transport Services managing director Bill Gibbens said he would cancel the sale of his company to Patrick if Toll succeeded in taking it over. </p> <p>Mr Gibbens also said that it should be "an easy decision" for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to block the takeover on grounds of reduced competition in the transport industry. </p> <p>He said that although a combined Toll and Patrick business had been portrayed as only a small part of the total $50bn transport industry in Australia, the reality was that $40bn of that turnover was in-house cargo movements, with only $10bn accessible to competition.</p> <p>A combined Toll and Patrick would have a dominating share of the contestable market that was left, Mr Gibbens said, with the rest spilt between other players ranking a long way behind. </p> <p>"I’ve never known a flyweight to knock over a heavyweight," he said.</p> <p>"It is like Coles taking over Woolworths &#8211 the ACCC should stop that."</p> <p>FCL agreed on a sale in March, with the synergy of becoming the forwarding arm of Patrick’s 50%-controlled Pacific National rail operation.</p> <p>Mr Gibbens said FCL was a natural fit with Patrick, but would "be lost in the mix" with Toll. </p> <p>"FCL provides Patrick with an integral piece of the logistics puzzle to go head to head with Toll in the marketplace," he said.</p> <table width="228" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="right" height="312" name="test"> <tr> <td width="228" height="10"> <div align="center"><font size="1"><b>Advertisemen</b>t</font>