Mekong backs Vietnam express delivery business

The deal size was not disclosed, but Mekong typically commits $6-15 million per transaction. It is the fifth disclosed investment out of the firm’s fourth fund – which closed last May at $112 million – and the second in the logistics space, following a commitment to cold chain logistics provider ABA Corporation.

Nhat Tin was established in 2014, a year after the founders sold Tin Thanh Express to Kerry. At time of sale, the business was handling more than 10,000 shipments every day through a network of more than 160 trucks and distribution hubs in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. Services ranged from domestic next-day delivery to full truckload and less than truckload shipping to international express.

Nhat Tin provides domestic and international door-to-door delivery services for all types of goods, packages and documents, as well as road and rail shipment, customs declaration, and warehousing services. As of March, it had more than 200 vehicles fulfilling 20,000 orders per day across all of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and municipalities.

At present, the company is primarily a business-to-business operator, working with leading retailers, distributors and manufacturers including FPT Shop, Amway, DHL and Sony. It also delivers mobile phone handsets from Samsung’s factories in Vietnam to Mobile World, a mobile phone retailer that is also a Mekong investee.

“We believe that the express delivery sector in Vietnam offers tremendous opportunity for growth, especially thanks to ever-increasing demands from the country’s retailing and e-commerce industries. On top of this, our research indicates that this sector is highly fragmented and thus very attractive for players who can deliver consistently high-quality, reliable and innovative services to their customers,” Chad Ovel, a partner at Mekong, said in a statement.

Nhat Tin represents the private equity firm’s second investment within a fortnight. It previously committed $7.6 million to Ben Thanh Jewelry, part of one of the oldest gold and gemstone retailers in Vietnam. Mekong is supporting the launch of a high-end jewelry retail concept under the Precita brand.

Other investments out of Mekong Enterprise Fund III include Wrap & Roll, a local restaurant chain with aspirations to expand internationally, and pawn shop business F88.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Support services
• Expansion
• Vietnam
• Growth capital
• Logistics
• Transportation
• Mekong Capital