Sy’s SMIC plans to extend logistics tentacles in buy-in of Airspeed
Source：inquirer.net
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Manila
Update Time：2019/01/09
The country’s largest conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) is in talks to invest in Airspeed International Corp. as part of its expansion in the logistics space. Airspeed International Corp. is a freight forwarding and e-commerce enterprise that has been operating in over three decades.
Industry sources reports that the Sy family-led SMIC was insistent on acquiring at the least 35 percent of the freight enterprise. Since a 35-percent stake is influential enough to affirm or veto key corporate decisions which often requires a concurrence of two-thirds of shareholders.
A spokesperson from SMIC commented “It was just an investment opportunity”.
In a separate interview, Airspeed founder and president Rosemarie Rafael confirmed “serious” discussions with SMIC but stressed that nothing had been finalized yet and the talks were still ongoing.
Rafael said when asked about SM’s prospective investment, “It’s almost there but there’s nothing final yet,” adding that there was another group interested and also talking to Airspeed.
When asked why Airspeed was considering to bring in a big conglomerate as an investor, Rafael said the 33-year-old company, would benefit from the fresh capital and beneficial collaboration that can catch up with the fast pace characteristics of e-commerce.
SMIC and Airspeed are both familiar with each other with regards to the logistics business. Airspeed bagged a deal to exclusively handle the logistics requirements of tenants and concessionaires at SM malls nationwide in 2012.
A veteran banker familiar with Airspeed comments, “It’s a relatively small but good company”.
Airspeed provides air and sea forwarding, international domestic door-to-door parcel and cargo services, packing and crating and long-time storage arrangements, among others. It has also ventured into the e-commerce space by providing the last mile requirements of online retailers like Lazada.
The company has a P341-million balance sheet based on Airspeed’s latest regulatory filing. Net profit in 2017 amounted to P15.1 million out of the P134 million in revenues. Net profit last year nearly doubled from the P8.48 million bottom line in 2016.
Last year, in buying a 34.5-percent stake in the parent company of publicly listed 2GO Group Inc., SMIC debuted in the logistics business.
Source：https://bit.ly/2Deeh7A