UPS extends buyout offer period for Dutch rival TNT Express to November

United Parcel Service (UPS), the world's largest package delivery and logistics company, will extend its $6.85-billion buyout offer period for Dutch rival TNT Express to 9 November in order to meet regulatory concerns.

The move comes after the European antitrust regulator broadened its investigation into UPS' proposed takeover TNT Express, on concerns that the merged company would corner a large market share in Europe. (See: European regulator widens probe into $6.4-bn UPS-TNT deal)

The Atlanta-based company had said in July that it does not expect the deal to be completed by the end of the initial offer period, and will extend the offer period beyond 31 August 2012.

UPS today said that it will ''formally confirm the extension of the offer period through a regulatory announcement on 5 September 2012 as the antitrust condition will not be fulfilled before the expiry of the offer period on 31 August 2012.''

In March, UPS had struck a deal to buy its smaller rival TNT Express, after raising its bid to $6.85 billion (€5.2 billion). The potential acquisition would be UPS's largest in its 105-year history after it purchased Overnite Corp in 2005 for $1.2 billion.

Buying the Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based company, will give UPS a stronghold in Europe, China, Russia, Brazil and India, most of which have high growth potential. It would put UPS on par with Europe's market leader DHL- a unit of Germany's Deutsche Post AG.