France's parcel delivery company GeoPost, a holding company owned by Le Groupe La Poste, bought 20.15 per cent of Dubai-listed courier Aramex, sending the UAE company's shares surging on Wednesday.
The acquisition of 295 million shares values the transaction at Dh1.4 billion ($381m), according to a filing on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).
After the announcement, Aramex's shares jumped as much as 14 .92 per cent to Dh4.39, its biggest intraday gain since January 2009. With this gain, the stock erased its losses since January and was up 0.2 per cent for the year.
“Some of the potential benefits could include opportunities to strengthen presence across the networks of both parties and a more seamless and connected network across the globe for the provision of transport and logistics services," Aramex said in a statement, adding that there are several knowledge sharing possibilities that could help unlock further value for all stakeholders.
European parcel delivery network GeoPost, which was created as unit of the French government’s postal arm, delivers about 1.9 billion parcels a year through the brands DPD, Chronopost, SEUR and BRT. It reported sales of €11bn ($12.8bn) in 2020, according to its website. The company has a long-standing relationship with Aramex in Europe that goes back nearly a decade and half.
“The investment in Aramex is part of GeoPost’s international development. Aramex is already a key partner of GeoPost. Our two companies have been working together for 10 years, leveraging on GeoPost/DPDgroup’s strong presence in the European parcel delivery market and Aramex’s powerful international network in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania," Boris Winkelmann, chairman and chief executive of GeoPost/DPDgroup, said in a separate statement.
Aramex was founded in Jordan by Fadi Ghandour in 1982 and was the first company from the Arab world to list on the Nasdaq. It later delisted in 2002, went public again in 2005 and is currently listed on the Dubai Financial Market. Mr Ghandour sold his remaining shares in Aramex in 2016.
The courier company employs more than 15,500 people in more than 600 locations across more than 65 countries, according to its website.
Aramex's second-quarter revenue rose 21 per cent to Dh1.57bn, compared to Dh1.29bn in the same period last year, driven by increased demand for cross border e-commerce services and significant growth in the freight-forwarding and logistics business, it said in August.
Net profit for the second quarter decreased 31 per cent to Dh65.5m compared to Dh94.4m in the same quarter last year, "as the business continued to invest in its digital transformation to drive further operating efficiencies and adapt to evolving consumer and industry trends", it said.
Last month, Aramex said it adopted a new operational structure where it split its core businesses into Aramex Express and Aramex Logistics to capture a greater market share of the global logistics industry.
As part of the reorganisation, it appointed Johannes Distler as chief strategy officer, a newly created role to ensure the development and execution of Aramex’s corporate strategy, as well as the group’s international expansion and mergers and acquisitions agenda.
Mr Distler joins Aramex from Roland Berger, where he was a partner in the firm’s Dubai office.
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Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
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All times UAE:
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Everton v Watford, 8.30pm
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Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
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4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
