STINNES/SCHENKER MAKES OFFER FOR BTL

STINNES/SCHENKER MAKES OFFER FOR BTL
     Stinnes, the German transport and forwarding group that owns Schenker, offered 700 million marks ($410 million) for BTL, the Swedish forwarding group previously known as Bilspedition.
     Stinnes already owns 35 percent of the capital of BTL and has integrated the land transport activities of Schenker and BTL in Europe under an agreement announced in 1997.
     BTL’s business also includes the Wilson Group, an air and maritime freight forwarding company. But BTL said there’s no change in the earlier plan to keep its air and maritime forwarding businesses separate from Schenker’s.
     BTL management has endorsed the Stinnes bid, which would create a land transport group with 20,000 employees and net annual sales of 30 billion Swedish kronor ($3.8 billion).