Fast-growing Emirates Post has bought its first two freighters under its ambitious strategy to growinto an international express, cargo and logistics provider and is pressing ahead with plans for an
IPO designed to raise some AED 3 billion (EUR 619 million).The two aircraft could launch flights by mid-April, and a third aircraft could be added afterabout six months, Abdulla Al Daboos, Emirates Post director-general, told this week’s World Mail& Express Logistics Middle East, Africa & South Asia conference in Dubai. He did notdisclose what kind of cargo aircraft had been bought or what routes would be flown.
Emirates Post is also planning to buy trucking companies in order to create a regional groundtransport network, and looking at acquiring companies in Asia, Al Daboos said. The express andcargo businesses will initially be incorporated into the local courier subsidiary, Empost, whichannounced earlier this week that it was launching international air and sea freight services.
Outlining Emirates Post’s growth strategy, Al Daboos reiterated the previously announcedplans to restructure the postal organisation into a holding company and then float a stake on theDubai stock exchange. “We want the IPO as soon as possible to raise financing to go global,” hedeclared. Under current proposals still under discussion with the UAE government, a stake of 49%could be floated to try to generate about AED 3 billion (EUR 619 million).
Emirates Post will also put a major focus on building up financial services, especiallyinternational money transfers, Al Daboos said. About 24% of the worldwide international remittancesare made from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, mostly to South Asia and other parts ofAsia.
Sultan Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE minister for public sector development and also chairman ofEmirates Post, told the conference that plans for the region’s postal operators to create a jointregional express company under the name Gulf Express were “at an advanced stage”. Noting that theproject had the support of the region’s governments, he added: “I’m confident that this will be areality very soon.”
