Freight forwarder and logistics operator T3EX Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際投資控股) yesterday announced plans to acquire a majority stake in Singapore’s Airtropolis Express (S) Pte Ltd to bolster its logistics capabilities in Southeast Asia.
T3EX Global’s board of directors has approved plans to acquire a 65 percent stake in the Singaporean company — which specializes in air and ocean freight, as well as warehousing — for NT$77.9 million (US$2.53 million).
The acquisition would solidify T3EX Global’s air freight warehousing and mitigate some of the anticipated effects from the escalating US-China trade war, company chairman David Yen (顏益財) said at a news conference in Taipei.
T3EX Global’s operations in Singapore focus on long-haul ocean freight, Yen said.
A larger presence in the important regional hub would help boost revenue growth in Southeast Asia, which contributed 33.92 percent of the company’s total sales last year, he said.
Airtropolis operates 2,156m2 of warehousing space in the free-trade zone of the cargo complex at Changi Internatonal Airport in Singapore, an important site for logistics in Southeast Asia.
“We are purchasing the 65 percent stake from an Airtropolis partner, who will be retiring, and a new partner would be brought on board along with additions to the management team to pave the way for new freight and warehousing businesses,” Yen said.
Meanwhile, not all is bad with the trade war, as clients have begun rushing to deliver goods ahead of tariff hikes, boosting prospects for the air and ocean cargo transport market in the near term, Yen said.
Cargo shippers, long battered by a global supply glut, in July began to cut capacity, leading to much higher freight prices in the past quarter, he said.
“We could see a number of cargo shippers end this fiscal year with significant profit recovery and breaking even,” Yen said.
T3EX Global is exploring partnerships with blue-chip companies in China to launch a supply chain financing service next year for small and medium-sized enterprises there, he said.
Part of T3EX Global’s strategy is to identify financing clients through its business-to-business-to-consumer logistics information system, which enables it to serve a wide array of customers using a single warehouse, he said.
T3EX Global’s consolidated sales for last month rose 5.31 percent sequentially and 12.28 percent annually to NT$1.03 billion, with aggregate revenue in the first eight months of the year rising 3.53 percent to NT$7.16 billion from the same period last year.
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