Private equity firm Apollo to buy UK parcel delivery giant Evri for £2.7bn

Apollo to buy company from fellow private equity firm Advent, which rebranded Evri in 2022 from its previous name Hermes.

Evri rebranded from Hermes in 2022 (Michael Leckie/PA) (PA Archive)

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management has said it is buying British parcel delivery firm Evri in a £2.7 billion deal.

Apollo is set to buy Evri from Advent International, the private equity firm which bought the company, then the UK operations of the Hermes delivery group, for one billion euros in 2020.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed the deal was valued at £2.7 billion.

Advent rebranded it as Evri in 2022, and the company now delivers 720 million parcels a year, and serves about 12 million customers a week.

In this next chapter we are excited to partner with the Apollo team to execute on the compelling growth opportunities we see ahead

Martijn de Lange, Evri chief executive

Evri is used by several large retailers including Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, as well as online platforms Etsy and Vinted.

The sale comes as the parent company of Parcelforce and Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services, is being taken private by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

Martijn de Lange, chief executive of Evri, said: “We are incredibly proud of the transformative changes that have enabled Evri to efficiently scale while maintaining our focus on on-time delivery and an environmentally responsible model.

“We want to thank the team at Advent for their partnership over the past five years and providing the business with a strong foundation for continued expansion. In this next chapter we are excited to partner with the Apollo team to execute on the compelling growth opportunities we see ahead.”

In past years Hermes was dogged by complaints of slow and missing deliveries, and was even the subject of a Channel 4 documentary about the matter.

However, since it rebranded, Evri has invested in technology and infrastructure, and now claims it makes more than 99% of deliveries on time.

Apollo partner Alex van Hoek said, “Evri has built an enviable position in parcel delivery, with an innovative model, technology and infrastructure purpose-built for reliable, lower emissions delivery in the fast-growing e-commerce market.”