PE collective gold panic express industry private express delivery wave second wave (VC 257)
The economy is picking up and mergers and acquisitions are on the rise. The express delivery industry is the first to move.
If there is no accident, in late April, the private express company Tiantian Express Group (commonly known as "Tiantian Express") will be officially incorporated into the HNA Group, becoming another private express company that transfers equity to outside capital following the introduction of Alibaba by Star Morning Express .
More private express mergers and acquisitions in the pipeline are also coming to the surface. Shentong, Yuantong, Zhongtong and many other private express companies that rank first in the industry have recently become the focus of pursuit by industrial companies such as HNA, Fosun, Lenovo, and venture capital companies such as Dinghui, Huaping, and Xintianyu. In the major hotels in Shanghai, they can often be seen taking turns sitting in Zhuangzhuang.
This scene is somewhat similar to the merger and acquisition private express boom started by foreign logistics companies 6 years ago, but the protagonist of capital has become a domestic company.
Domestic companies attack
HNA Group, which continues to expand in all aspects of people flow, logistics and capital flow, has once again extended its tentacles to the "three streams in one" express delivery industry. The group is based in Tianjin's northern headquarters. Recently, it has reached an intention to acquire 60% of the latter's shares at a price of 120 million yuan with private Tiantian Express, and plans to officially sign the contract in late April.
Tiantian Express was founded in 1994. He Shunfeng, Shentong and Zhaiji Express are among the earliest private express companies in China. At present, they have more than 20 distribution centers and more than 3,000 outlets in China. Its network resources in 1,200 cities across the country are valued by the HNA Group. In the integrated sea, land and air integrated logistics system that the latter has focused on in recent years, it only lacks a ground express network.
According to Liu Jianxin, a director of the China Logistics Society who has long been concerned about the express delivery industry, if the acquisition of Tiantian Express is successful, HNA Group has its own "ground force".
In fact, another subsidiary of HNA Group headquartered in Shanghai, Daxinhua Logistics Group, is also waiting for opportunities to enrich its ground forces. The company is in contact with private express companies such as Shentong and Yuantong, hoping to quickly increase its own shortcomings by acquiring equity.
A senior executive of Daxinhua Logistics said that express delivery is a part of logistics, and it is only a matter of time before the company gets involved.
Shentong, Yuantong and other private express companies in the industry's first echelon do not seem to be in a hurry at this time, because more investors have extended olive branches to them, including well-known enterprises such as Fosun and Lenovo.
People familiar with the matter said that Fosun has formed a dedicated team to study the express delivery industry and look for M & A opportunities. Its preferred acquisition target is Shentong Express. However, due to the lower asking price of Fosun, Chen Dejun, chairman of Shentong Express, prefers other investors.
Investors seeking to acquire private express delivery also include venture capital active in various industries, such as CDH and Xintianyu. A senior executive of private express said that the intention of venture capital to participate in private express is to cash out when the company goes public and obtain a high return on investment. The owners of private express have long heard of the profit-seeking and cruel nature of venture capital, and most of them are reluctant to choose venture capital, and prefer to contact domestic-funded enterprises that operate industries.
Private express started in the 1990s. After more than 10 years of rapid development, it has become the dominant player in the domestic express market, with more than 80% of the same city express and more than 50% of the cross-provincial express. In recent years, driven by emerging businesses such as online shopping, the private express delivery industry has experienced an average annual growth rate of more than 25%, maintaining a strong growth momentum.
The high growth of private express delivery and the unique value of the express delivery network, coupled with the new "Postal Law" implemented in October 2009, have improved the policy environment of private express delivery and attracted many investors to come to the gold market. According to incomplete statistics, since the second half of 2009, there have been more than 20 domestic large-scale enterprises and venture capital and private express delivery companies to discuss mergers and acquisitions, forming a new round of investment boom.
This is clearly different from the first round of craze in 2004. The main protagonists of the acquisitions at that time were the four major international express delivery giants: FedEx, UPS, DHL, Germany, and TNT in the Netherlands. Their intention was to have a network of express delivery services in China after the Chinese logistics industry was fully opened to the outside world in December 2005.
During the last wave of acquisitions, the four major express delivery companies had in-depth contacts with domestic large-scale private express delivery companies. There were two earliest transactions: First, FedEx spent US $ 430 million in 2006 to acquire a 50% stake in its joint venture company Datian-FedEx Express Co., Ltd. with the private Datian Group, and Datian Group ’s assets in the domestic express delivery business; second In December 2005, TNT acquired Huayu Logistics, the country's largest road freight company, at a price of US $ 135 million, and then integrated it into Tiandi Huayu, which is the main road express business.
This round of acquisition boom came to an end in 2009. The landmark event was that DHL's joint venture company Sinotrans DHL acquired Shanghai Quanyi Express and took over 100% of Beijing Sinotrans Express Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Chinese company Sinotrans, which specializes in domestic express delivery. Equity.
After the foreign investment completed the network layout through acquisition, the interest in private express delivery weakened. Starting from this year, domestic companies have replaced foreign express delivery companies and become the new protagonist of mergers and acquisitions of private express delivery.
Private express forward and backward
Shentong Express, which has heard news of the sale of foreign shares many times, once again faced the choice of selling or not.
Chen Dejun, chairman of Shentong Express, has a dilemma. If it is not sold, it is difficult for the company to continue to expand and promote upgrading and optimization, and the internally exposed problems are difficult to solve; if it is sold, it may lose its dominance and years of painstaking operation will become the fruit of others.
Shentong Express, established in 1993, is a typical sample of China's private express delivery industry. Chen Dejun's choices regarding equity transfer represent a complex mentality of many private express delivery bosses.
In the more than ten years since the establishment of Shentong Express, relying on the unique culture of family businesses and the support of franchisees, it has become the top three express companies in China. However, the differences among family members and the uncontrollable characteristics of franchisees have been bothering Chen Dejun. Whether it is to solve these internal problems or to promote the company's further expansion, a large amount of capital investment is required, and private express companies have limited strength and difficult financing, and have been in a state of lack of money for a long time.
Chen Dejun once said that we used to ride horses and compete for market share, but in the future, the express delivery industry can only be a few big players. We have to learn to ride a tiger. The real name of "Tiger" is capital.
Since 2004, the four major international express companies and Sinotrans Group have contacted Shentong Express, hoping to acquire or participate in shares, but due to various reasons, they finally failed to reach a deal. Now, at the critical moment when Shentong Express tries to achieve leapfrog development, new investors such as Fosun and Daxinhua Logistics have entered the door of Shentong.
Shentong Express recently put forward ambitious development goals, planning to become the largest private express enterprise group in China around 2015, and enter the top 6 of the global express industry. To achieve this goal, a large amount of capital support is required, and the company's own strength is limited. The introduction of external capital through the transfer of equity is one of the practical outlets.
In the development plan of Shentong Express, the introduction of strategic investors to promote asset restructuring is listed as the primary way to achieve the company's development goals.
Zhan Jisheng, chairman of Tiantian Express, which is about to marry HNA Group, has previously stated that Tiantian Express needs funds to expand investment and increase market share, and is currently actively looking for strategic investors.
Liu Jianxin, a director of the China Logistics Society, analyzed that private express delivery that intends to introduce new shareholders does not focus on solving capital problems as before. They also hope that investors can bring more resources or form linkages with express delivery business.
For example, Shetong Express put forward in the strategic planning that when introducing strategic investment, it should also introduce resources such as air transportation, land, and management to speed up the development and promote internal integration.
In fact, the introduction of external capital is not only the need for private express delivery to seek long-term development, but also its helplessness to deal with the immediate difficulties. A senior executive of private courier said that many private courier companies in the franchise system have entered a bottleneck period, and it is difficult to continue to grow. Family members have different opinions on the company's development strategy and are unwilling to continue to invest. problem.
Making money is not easy
A senior executive of private express delivery used "thunder and heavy rain" to sum up the second round of investment boom in private express delivery led by domestic investors. There are two specific performances. First, despite the large number of companies in contact with each other, few have actually reached an agreement. What has really been settled so far is Alibaba ’s participation in Xingchenjiu. The two companies discussed this for nearly half a year. The second is that despite the widespread momentum of investors, the funds actually invested are very limited.
It is reported that Alibaba obtained a 30% stake in Xingchenji, and it only cost about 50 million yuan. The HNA Group reportedly prepared about 2.5 billion yuan for the express delivery industry, but Tiantian Express, the controlling shareholder, only invested 120 million yuan. It is uncertain whether the follow-up investment will be implemented.
This may be because private express delivery is not as valuable as they originally expected, nor is it as easy to make money as the outside world imagined.
Despite the development time of more than 10 years, most of China's private express delivery companies are still in the stage of extensive development with scale expansion. A large number of small and medium-sized private courier companies are actually small workshops composed of several people and several vehicles. Even large-scale courier companies generally have problems such as backward management, outdated equipment, lagging IT technology, and poor service quality.
Even more fatal is that for a long time, private express companies have been seriously homogenizing their products and services. In order to compete for market share, they have to use price as the main means of competition. Even if labor, materials, and management costs rise sharply, they dare not easily mention it. price. This makes the company's profit margins meager, has no power to expand reproduction, and no strength to innovate. This situation has not changed so far.
"China's domestic express delivery market is very strange, everyone is optimistic, but just can't make money." A senior executive of the express delivery company said.
To solve the various problems of private express delivery, huge capital investment is required, and no return can be seen in the short term. For example, in order to improve the network quality of courier companies, it is necessary to change the outlets of important cities from franchising to direct sales. This alone will require a lot of capital.
However, in practice, many investments that intend to get involved in the express delivery industry have neither patience nor strength. Although some investors believe that they have deep network connections, they can find policy support for enterprises.
According to people familiar with the matter, some investors, especially VCs, do not have enough knowledge about the express delivery industry, thinking that the industry is easy to make money. At present, there are no listed companies in the industry. Once the listed companies are promoted, they can quickly cash out. In fact, in the express delivery industry, no quick money or profiteering can be made, and they can only accumulate bit by bit and make unremitting investments.
"The impetuous people can't do express delivery, this industry can't be spared." The above said.
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