KUALA LUMPUR: POS Malaysia Bhd is willing to sell a stake in courier unit Pos Laju, its jewel in the crown, if the price is right.
Pos Malaysia group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said unlike most national postal companies in other countries, Pos Laju was the market leader and commanded 40 per cent of the Malaysian courier market.
“Pos Laju is the jewel in the crown. This year, courier revenue is set to overtake that of traditional postal services,” he said in an interview recently.
Shukrie said Pos Malaysia was open to strategic partnerships.
“From time to time, we do receive offers for collaboration and proposals to buy into Pos Malaysia’s units.
“Pos Malaysia can collaborate with many partners if the tie-ups are strategic.
“We have yet to come across a proposal that is juicy enough for Pos Laju,” he said.
Two months ago, Shukrie flew to China and met senior officials of
e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
The meeting sought to establish a more direct logistics role for Pos Malaysia and Alibaba to leverage on the global growth of e-commerce.
Alibaba is one of China’s biggest
e-commerce companies, with revenue of 101.1 billion yuan (RM65.3 billion) last year. It was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, who was recently appointed adviser to the government on digital economy.
“We have been doing business with Alibaba for a few years. We want Pos Malaysia to bypass middlemen and have direct collaboration with Alibaba,” said Shukrie.
Asked if direct collaboration meant Alibaba buying into Pos Laju, he said: “For Pos Malaysia to ‘divorce’ Pos Laju, the offer has to be juicy enough.”
Shukrie said Alibaba had recently tightened its grip on Singapore Post to 14.4 per cent, making it the second-biggest shareholder in Singapore’s national postal company.
The exponential growth in online shopping via Amazon.com, Alibaba.com, Shoppee.com.my, 11street.my, Zalora.com.my and Lazada.com.my meant customers could buy anything from clothes, books to sports equipment online and have the products delivered by courier service.
“Pos Malaysia’s focus is e-commerce and this global trend is driving our logistics business. We have the assets to deliver purchases made online,” said Shukrie.
Pos Malaysia, which is 53.5 per cent-owned by DRB-HICOM Bhd, is boosting its warehousing and logistics assets to become a full-service e-commerce provider.
Pos Malaysia delivers by air and also by sea via its freighter and roll-on, roll-off vessel.
On land, the group mobilises a fleet of 420 prime movers and 2,400 lorries.