DHL to start negotiations to buy Colombian Servientrega

The global express and logistics company DHL is expected to start negotiations to acquire Colombian package delivery company Servientrega, the newspaper Portafolio said on October 4, 2006.

Representatives of DHL have already arrived in the Latin American country in order to start the talks.

Servientrega has been operating on the Colombian market for the last 24 years. DHL is a unit of German postal services group Deutsche Post AG.

The interest of DHL in Servientrega comes only days after the Colombian company announced investments of USD5.2 mln (4.09 mln euro) in order to start operations in Panama, Peru and Spain.

DHL is the leader on the Colombian package delivery market with a share of 60 pct.

Currently Servientrega (www.servientrega.com) has operations in Ecuador, Venezuela and the United States. The expected signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Colombia and Venezuela is seen to strongly boost the operations of the Colombian company.