SINOTRANS Air Transportation Development Co., Ltd. (Sinotrans Air), subsidiary of Sinotrans Limited, announced that it will sell its 50 per cent stake in Exel-Sinotrans Freight Forwarding Co Ltd to DHL for CNY629 million (US$84.8 million), Logistics Week reported.
Exel-Sinotrans is a joint venture between Sinotrans Air and DHL Exel Supply Chain (Hong Kong) Ltd, providing air and sea cargo forwarding services. Sinotrans Air and DHL each holds 50 per cent stake in the venture.
Sinotrans chief executive Zhang Jiangwei said DHL has acquired a few freight forwarders during recent years, hoping to build its own freight forwarding and logistics business. It also wants to wholly own Exel-Sinotrans shares the same client base as DHL, said Mr Zhang.
But he added that Sinotrans' freight forwarding business will not be affected by the sale because the Chinese freight forwarding market is tremendous.
Mr Zhang also said that Sinotrans Group has decided to focus on two major business sectors. One is the shipping business led by Hong-Kong listed Sinotrans Shipping. The other is the all-around logistics led by Sinotrans Limited.
In order to develop its international reputation, Sinotrans Limited is seeking to cooperate with a number of European and American companies on unconventional logistics businesses, Mr Zhang revealed, but refused to give further details.
He divulged that Sinotrans Limited has already formed a 50-50 joint venture offering mainly domestic service in China with a US-based retail logistics provider called NRS.
Industry analysts said Sinotrans Limited may hope to enter the domestic retail logistics market with NRS.
Mr Zhang also divulged that Galaxy International, the joint venture air cargo carrier owned by Sinotrans and Korean Air, will make its maiden flight to Frankfurt in January.
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