Monday, Jan 23, 2012

(This story was originally published Sunday.)

By Ellen Knickmeyer

Of ZAWYA DOW JONES

RIYADH (Zawya Dow Jones)--As political unrest slows some projects in its base in the Arab world, Dubai-based Aramex (ARMX.DFM) is focusing on expanding its transportation and logistics business in resource-rich sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia, and hopes to make new acquisitions in those regions, the company's founder and chief executive officer Fadi Ghandour said Sunday.

The purchase last month for about $55 million of a South Africa-based transportation and logistics company, Berco Express (Pty) Ltd., represented the biggest part of an ongoing $100 million acquisition campaign, said Hussein Hachem, Aramex's CEO for the Middle East and Africa.

Hachem said Aramex still has $30 million to $40 million to spend on acquisitions, and will focus in large part on companies based in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia.

Both Aramex executives were speaking in an interview at an international business forum in Riyadh.

Aramex's interest in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, is parallel to that of the Chinese, who have invested deeply in Africa over the past decade to secure mineral exports from the continent.

Heavy Chinese investments developing sub-Saharan ports are easing transport in that continent, Hachem said.

In addition to acquiring the South African company, Aramex last year bought a Kenya-based courier company. It also entered a joint venture with China's Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co. (600270.SH), with the aim of linking Chinese companies with trading partners in the Middle East and Africa. "You don't have to be in China to be" involved in China's business growth, Ghandour said.

The African and Asian acquisitions are part of Aramex's goals of establishing itself as the leading transport company in emerging markets and diversifying overall, Ghandour said. Currently, about 60% of Aramex's revenue is from the Middle East, down from about 75% in the past, the Aramex executives said.

In the region, Aramex is currently watching for opportunities particularly in Turkey and the Gulf, Ghandour said. Uprisings in Libya and in Egypt interrupted work there, he said.

- Ellen Knickmeyer, Dow Jones Newswires, +971 55 1093359, ellen.knickmeyer@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

23-01-12 0355GMT