South Korea’s largest parcel delivery service company CJ Logistics Corp. acquired a 50 percent stake in India’s medium-sized logistics and transport company Darcl Logistics Ltd. at 57.06 billion won ($50.6 million). The deal is expected to pave the way for the Korean company to tap into the world’s second-most populated country with burgeoning logistics demand and broaden its logistics network across the Asian region.

CJ Logistics announced on Wednesday that it has agreed with Darcl Logistics to take over 11,931,071 shares or 50 percent stake in the Indian logistics and transport company at 57.06 billion won, making the Korean courier as the largest shareholder of Darcl.

Established in 1986, Darcl is India’s leading transport company that provides freight services specialized in delivering industrial materials like steel on top of consumer goods through its land and sea transport networks that stretch out to neighboring countries. It has about 3,000 employees working at its 210 branches located across India. The company posted 320 billion won in revenue last year.

Through Darcl, CJ Logistics will be able to enhance its logistics capability across the Asian continent by broadening its courier networks. An unnamed CJ Logistics official said the company also plans to seek more merger and acquisition targets abroad to bolster its presence in the global freight transport market.

It already established a joint venture named CJ Transnational Philippine with the Philippines’ leading logistics service provider Transnational Diversified Group (TDG) in December and acquired Century Logistics, Malaysia’s second-largest logistics company in September last year. The company is also reported to be in talks over acquiring a Middle Eastern logistics company, whose revenue amounts to around 30 billion won, at 100 billion won.

By Sohn Il-seon and Choi Seung-jin

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