(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s economy has become intertwined with Novo Nordisk A/S, famous for its fast-selling weight-loss treatments, but the pharma giant just got a bump down on the list of the Nordic country’s biggest revenue generators.
DSV A/S’s new acquisition, the $15.9 billion takeover of DB Schenker, will almost double the freight company’s sales, making it Denmark’s second-largest firm by that measure and pushing Novo down to third.
Still, Novo is the biggest company in Denmark – and Europe – when measured by market value, after the frenzy around weight-loss drugs fueled steep gains in its stock, while AP Moller-Maersk A/S remains the Nordic country’s biggest by revenue based on 2023 figures.
DSV’s integration of DB Schenker is expected to take 2-3 years, and revenue may “dip a little bit” in the short term, Chief Executive Officer Jens H. Lund said in an interview on Bloomberg TV on Friday. But he expects that DSV, with the acquisition, will be able to grow faster in the long run.
For Denmark, DSV’s growth adds some diversification to the AAA-rated economy amid warnings that its dependency on Novo poses large risks if the fortunes of the drug developer should turn. The acquisition is also the second-largest in Denmark’s history, only trailing Novo Holdings A/S’s $16.5 billion deal for Catalent Inc.
Novo Nordisk is worth about $615 billion on the Copenhagen exchange, roughly 25 times more than Maersk and 14 times more than DSV.
(Updates with comments from DSV’s CEO in fourth paragraph)
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