DHL buys stake in Astar Air Cargo

Plantation-based express-delivery company DHL on Tuesday announced it has acquired a minority stake in Miami’s Astar Air Cargo for an undisclosed amount.

DHL acquired a 49 percent equity interest and a 24.9 percent voting interest in Astar — just under federal thresholds that restrict foreign ownership of U.S. airlines. DHL is an arm of Germany’s Deutsche Post.

Jonathan Baker, a DHL spokesman, said the transaction was reviewed by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The deal comes four years after the airline, then known as DHL Airways, was sold by DHL and a private investor to a group led by former Burger King boss John Dasburg for USD 57 million.

“The business environment has changed significantly since 2003,” Baker said in explaining why DHL reacquired a stake in Astar. He didn’t offer any specifics.

DHL has recently targeted aviation investments to support its operations in the United States. It recently invested in New York’s Polar Air Cargo, which offer delivery services between the United States and Asia.

DHL relies on Astar to handle about a third of its U.S. express domestic air services, Baker said.

The transaction “signals DHL’s confidence in the capabilities of Astar,” said Dasburg, Astar’s chairman, president and CEO.

At the time of the 2003 sale of the cargo firm to Dasburg’s group, both United Parcel Service and FedEx challenged the deal on the grounds that airline was controlled by Deutsche Post. But a Department of Transportation judge disagreed with the two package-delivery giants. Astar would have had to shut down had the judge ruled the other way, according to a company lawyer at the time.

Federal law prohibits foreign ownership of any U.S. airline to 49 percent and voting interest to 25 percent. The law dates back to 1926.