Sinotrans Limited, a leading integrated logistics and transportation services provider in China, is eyeing future acquisitions or joint ventures with partners to strengthen and expand its service network for freight forwarding and express delivery.
This comes as first half results showed that Sinotrans's express delivery business suffered a drop in profits.
Company president Zhang Jianwei said in an interview with online Chinese business information provider Sinocast that the operating ability of a single network "is not strong enough" and hence the company intends to extend its network coverage as well as enhance head office control over those networks.
Sinotrans president Zhang Jianwei reportedly revealed that the company was seeking overseas and domestic acquisitions to bolster its service networks.
This follows an earlier announcement that Sinotrans Ltd would buy Chinese assets from parent China National Foreign Trade Transportation (Group) Corp. (Sinotrans Group) for CNY1.106 billion (US$151.09 million), covering businesses from freight forwarding, shipping agency and warehousing to customs declaration.
The Sinotrans Group is expected to inject more assets into the Hong Kong-listed Sinotrans Ltd in 2008, the report said.
It also noted that Sinotrans is currently engaging in talks about the possibility of investing in other domestic China airports and is also looking into the prospect of cooperating with domestic carriers on regional cargo routes.
In the mean time, Sinotrans air cargo joint venture with Korean Air at Tianjin Binhai International Airport is scheduled to commence operations from the first quarter of 2008, initially providing international transportation services. Sinotrans also recently unveiled plans to build cargo transportation stations at the Tianjin airport by joining hands with South Korean partners.
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