Austrian Post completes acquisition of 25% stake in Turkish Aras Cargo

Austrian Post yesterday completed the acquisition of a 25% stake in major Turkish parcelscompany Aras Kargo which has set itself the ambitious goal to outgrow Yurtici Kargo as the largest

The closing of the acquisition worth TRY 125 million (€49 million) followed an anti-trustapproval. Austrian Post purchased 20% of the shares in Aras Kargo from the publicly traded Turkishprivate equity company Is Private Equity along with 5% of the shares held by the Aras family, whosemajority shareholding is thus falling from 80% to 75%.

Moreover, Austrian Post has a call option, which it can exercise in 2016, entitling it toacquire a further 50% stake from the Aras family on the basis of Aras Kargo’s business results in2015/16 and thus potentially increase its shareholding to 75%.

With a market share of more than 25%, Aras Kargo is currently second in the Turkish parcelsmarket behind Yurtici Kargo, the GeoPost/DPD partner, and ahead of MNG Kargo, which cooperates withFedEx and GLS.

Established more than 30 years ago, the company delivers some 46 million parcels and 32 milliondocuments per year, generating annual revenues of some €250 million. Aras Kargo operates anationwide network consisting of about 800 shops, 28 distribution centres and 2,600 deliveryvehicles, with a workforce of some 5,400 salaried employees.