Toll Holdings Ltd said on Friday that it is set to acquire United Kingdom-based WT Sea Air Group (WT) and Genesis Forwarding Group for a total of $150 million, in its bid to boost the company's European operations.

Toll said that the purchased forwarding companies should deliver yearly revenue of up to $250 million with expected earnings per share by year one, as company managing director Paul Little added that the acquisitions would pave the way for a substantial scale to Toll's global forwarding operations in Europe.

Mr Little said that WT should generate up to $170 million revenue this year while Genesis is projected to deliver up to $80 million, which should push Toll Global Forwarding (TGF) to the top six forwarding companies in the UK.

He added that TGF is continuing its growth path for leadership position in Asian markets en route to key trade lanes into North America, Australia and the UK.

Toll said that WT business mainly deals with global forwarding, bonded warehousing, pick-pack, garment re-hanging, vacuum packing and final-mile delivery services and its base clients were mostly fashion retailers.

On the other hand, Toll said that Genesis deals with international multi-modal freight services in defence, aerospace and oil and gas across Europe, the United States, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

The company also disclosed that it has already divested its 50 percent interest with Italy's Pacorini Group to Pacorini, which Toll entered in 2004 where the joint venture provided for logistics services and trade finance facilitation for the ferrous and non-ferrous metals industries.

Mr Little clarified that the Italian partnership was actually a successful business even from the start but Toll had concluded that ownership interest was not a core asset for the company though he maintained that "Toll will continue its relationship with Pacorini through the provision of warehousing and other logistics services."

As of 1032 AEST on Friday, Toll stocks were trading at $5.89, gaining three cents from previous market trading.