Aramex to spend $100m on acquisitions by 2013

Aramex PJSC, the Middle East's largest courier company, will spend as much as $100 million on acquisitions by the end of next year, Chief Executive Officer Fadi Ghandour said in an interview with Arabian Business. "We will do in the coming year and half four or five, maybe six,'' acquisitions, said Ghandour, 53,  who founded the company with a friend in Jordan in 1982 and plans to retire at the end of this year. "We have one in the pipeline coming up but we’re looking at a couple of small ones in Asia and Australia and we will continue to look at Africa,'' he said. "Turkey is a very interesting market for us. Even if we’re not looking at a specific acquisition, if something comes up opportunistically we will actually go ahead and do it.'' Aramex became the first Arab-based international company to trade its shares on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1997. The company delisted after five years, was bought by Dubai -based private equity firm Abraaj Capital and continued to expand before going public on the Dubai Financial Market in 2005. Acquisitions, and increased revenue from the fast paced economies of GCC countries helped the company report a 22 percent increase in its first quarter profits, which saw earnings rise to AED 61 million from AED 50 million in the same period of 2011. The coming three quarters will see double digit growth figures, said Ghandour who will remain on the board of Aramex as vice chairman. "On the top line and the bottom line we will see variations of what you’ve seen in the first quarter,'' he said. Aramex which has a market capitalization of AED 2.65 billion ($708 million) competes with DHL and UPS. It employs more than 12,300 people in over 353 locations across 60 countries.