Stock - Aramex Logistics
Aramex has increasingly been looking at acquisitions to fuel growth in key business lines. MyUS will be fitted into the Dubai company's courier vertical. Image Credit: Supplied

Dubai: Dubai-based logistics firm Aramex has got all approvals to buy Access USA Shipping (or MyUS), an ecommerce enabling platform. The all-cash deal is around $265 million, and is Aramex’s biggest transaction to date.

The new entity will operate as a business unit within Aramex’s courier vertical. MyUS will retain its brand name and will be complementary to ‘Shop & Ship’, Aramex’s subscription-based last-mile e-commerce solutions platform. (Aramex's financials will reflect the new deal from this quarter itself, and to the tune of $30 million on full-year 2023 EBITDA.)

MyUS last year generated more than $100 million in revenues and delivered 1.1 million packages to customers, primarily those who shop from retailers based in the US, UK and China. The US-headquartered company lists about 180,000 active customers. The company has 300 employees, the majority based in the US.

MyUS gives Aramex a yield boost
Aramex will, with this deal, be seeking higher yields from its ecommerce focus, thus compensating for lower growth and margins on the document shifting side of the business.

The DFM listed company, which was the first to announce the opening up to 100 per cent foreign ownership, has been on the lookout for overseas acquisitions. Also, last year, France's GeoPost bought a 20.15 per cent stake in Aramex through a Dh1.4 billion deal.

"Aramex has become an even more competitive player in the cross-border e-commerce space," said Othman Aljeda, CEO. "Given how complementary MyUS’s business is to ours, we believe our wider stakeholder universe will realize the immediate and long-term positive benefits of this acquisition.

"Our shareholders will immediately see the impact on financial performance, and over the long term we can unlock further value through operational and cost synergies. Our customers are set to benefit from further enhanced network coverage and service excellence from first to last mile. Our employees will benefit from knowledge sharing, further developing their expertise in the cross-border express business, including learning and adopting MyUS’s leading proprietary software."

We will work on developing a joint business plan to unlock revenue and operational synergies to help grow the cross-border ecommerce business

- Ramesh Bulusu, CEO of MyUS