In the past two years, there has been almost no room for growth in the profits of express logistics in China, and going overseas has become a new direction for express delivery giants. Many express delivery companies are gradually moving towards overseas markets. On February 6, Thailand’s Kerry Express Public Co., Ltd. notified the Stock Exchange of Thailand that SF International Holdings (Thailand) Co., Ltd. acquired 73.18% of the company’s outstanding shares, with a total value of approximately 7.01 billion baht. At the same time, SF Express’s wholly-owned subsidiary also controls 26.82% of the shares sold by Kerry Express in Thailand. In other words, if the acquisition goes smoothly, SF Holding will acquire 100% of the shares of Kerry Express Thailand and become its full owner.
This acquisition also means that SF Express is one step closer to internationalization. According to the latest reports, SF Express’s acquisition of shares in Thailand’s Kerry Express will intensify competition in Thailand’s express service industry. The move will enable Kerry Express to leverage more artificial intelligence technology and a wider range of services, thereby enhancing its competitive advantage. Generally speaking, Southeast Asia is the first choice for China’s express delivery overseas. However, for Chinese express delivery companies, going overseas to Southeast Asia requires combining the local market with the mature express delivery model that has been established in China. This is not an easy thing to succeed.
SF Express actually entered Southeast Asia as early as 2010, setting up its first outlet in Singapore, and gradually expanded to other Southeast Asian countries in the following years. However, SF Express did not focus on this aspect at the beginning, so by 2019, SF Express had not taken any further steps toward internationalization. In the following years, SF Express deployed many international strategies, the most significant milestone of which should be the acquisition of Kerry Logistics in 2021. Kerry Logistics is one of the largest express delivery companies in Southeast Asia. After this acquisition, SF Express directly owns a mature local distribution network, which has greatly improved SF Express’s service capabilities in the Southeast Asian market. Kerry Express is the leader in Thailand’s logistics industry, with a daily business volume of more than 2 million pieces. SF Express’s goal for 2025 is to ensure that its business scale and company value rank first in Asia and among the top three in the world. To achieve this goal, the Southeast Asian market is a stop that SF Express must win, and its international services and overseas business must also be vigorously developed.
However, international business is a big difficulty for any logistics company, and acquiring local companies in other countries also requires a lot of financial support. SF Express needs to balance the expenditure and income of this series of big moves. With the rapid international expansion of SF Express, the route service scope has been extended to the Middle East and Oceania for the first time, and the number of global navigation cities and regions has exceeded 100. These are the years when SF Express has been developing rapidly internationally. During this process, there have been many major acquisitions to provide customers with a wider range of logistics services. Although SF Express has made great progress in internationalization, it still lags behind UPS, FedEx and DHL, international logistics giants that have been developing for decades. It is hoped that SF Express will continue to leverage its overseas advantages to further internationalize and build a more comprehensive global supply chain.
