EXPRESS courier-services firm LBC Express Inc. is aiming to end the year with about P11 billion in revenues on the back of a robust demand for freight forwarding due to the increasing popularity of mobile and electronic commerce around the globe.
The targeted amount is about 18 percent higher than the P9.3 billion booked in 2014, LBC Express Chairman Santiago G. Araneta said in a chance interview.
Most of the growth, he said, will be coming from commercial clients.
“We’ve increased our commercial volume so, instead of the typical retail send mail on the branch, we’ve increased the commercial volume to 1.4 billion. The rest of the retail is growing 7 percent to 8 percent. Remittance is flat; we’ve redefined the remittance business, we’re now selling soluctions payments, which naturally bring downs the percentage fees. The transaction base has increased, but the fees of percentages have gone down,” Araneta explained.
LBC Express is looking at acquiring several logistics companies in Southeast Asia in preparation for the upcoming integration of the 10 Asean nations. The initiative will be financed by the company’s backdoor listing on the capital market this year.
“We’re taking an eye at some logistics companies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,” he said.
Araneta said his company is “attempting to raise about P7 billion” through the backdoor-listing route that it chose to enter into the stock exchange.
It recently bought 59.1 million unissued shares from Federal Resources Investment Group Inc. at P1 apiece. This initiative will result in LBC Express’s majority ownership of the listed shell company.
Federal has an authorized capital stock of 100 million at P1 par value, with 40.9 million shares issued and outstanding shares. At that rate, LBC Express will take in some 59 percent of the company if the deal pushes through.
LBC Express was originally eyeing to list on the local bourse via an initial public offering. But this initiative was stalled by the port congestion last year.
Going public via backdoor listing is much cheaper versus launching a public offering. Through this route, an unlisted firm may acquire shares from dormant or shell companies, and proceed with the changing of the name and corporate purposes of the corporation.
Ten companies are expected to list in the stock exchange this year. The list includes Crown Asia Chemicals Corp., Company of Friends Inc., Gweilo Corp., Green Power Panay Philippines Inc., Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. and National Book Store Inc.
LBC Express is a provider of courier and freight-forwarding services. It is also a nonbank provider of domestic-remittance services and inbound international remittance services in the Philippines.
It is also one of the top 5 nonbank providers of domestic remittance services by remittance volume, as well as one of the top 5 nonbank providers of international inbound remittances in the Philippines by remittance volume in calendar year 2012.
The company is spending P1.5 in capital expenditures this year to further modernize its information-technology solutions and add more branches nationwide.
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