Aramex co-founder Fadi Ghandour has reportedly sold a stake in Aramex to a number of Gulf investors, including Mohamed Alabbar, a report by Bloomberg said, quoting two people with knowledge of the deal.
Mohammad Ali Alabbar is a real estate and property development tycoon in the United Arab Emirates and former director general of the Dubai Department of Economic Development. He is also the
founder and chairman of Dubai-based Emaar Properties, one of the largest real estate development companies in the world.
The report said that Ghandour had sold his full stake and that Goldman Sachs had advised Mohamed Alabbar on the deal. There has been no official confirmation or comment from Aramex, Ghandour,
Alabbar or Goldman Sachs, although a purchase of a 6.55% stake in Aramex by Jaona Investment around the same time was officially published on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) website.
Ghandour was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aramex up until 2012, when he stepped down and took on the new position of Vice Chairman.
At the end of last month, Aramex also released its figures for the second quarter (Q2) of 2016 – which showed a net profit of AED125.7m (€30.5 million), up 36% from Q2 2015.
In a statement, the company said that Europe, Asia and Australia were the biggest contributors to growth, with the recent acquisition of Fastway Couriers contributing significantly to revenues.
The wider Levant region also grew at a healthy rate while in the GCC we witnessed a relatively flat growth.
Strong growth was also recorded from the international express business, primarily in the US, Europe and Asia, due to a continued increase in demand for cross border e-commerce services. Growth
in the freight business remained relatively stagnant as a result of the drop in global oil prices and currency fluctuations.
Nol van Fenema
Write a comment