Deutsche Post eyes stake in Chinese logistics group Sinotrans
Deutsche Post, the semi-privatised German postal authority, wants to acquire a stake in the Chinese state-run logistics firm, Sinotrans, a board member of the German group said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday.
“We’ve expressed our strong interest in a strategic partnership to the Chinese government,” Deutsche Post board member Uwe Doerken told the Financial Times Deutschland.
“We hope our leading market position and our long-standing joint venture with Sinontrans will make us the preferred candidate for a stake,” he added.
FT Deutschland quoted banking sources as saying that the Chinese government wants to sell 38.5 percent of Sinotrans this spring in a deal valued at up to 500 million dollars (476 million euros).
Most of the stake would be sold to institutional investors, but around 10 percent would be sold to strategic investors with whom Sinotrans already operated a joint venture, the newspaper said.
DHL, the express delivery service of Deutsche Post, set up just such a joint venture with a unit of Sinotrans in 1986. But rival firms, such as TNT in the Netherlands and UPS in the United States also had similar ties.
Sinotrans has annual sales equivalent to 500 million dollars and is expected to post net profit of around 70 million dollars for 2002, the newspaper added.
