Apollo eyes $100m investment in Indian delivery firm

According to The Times of India, the transaction may include a mix of equity and convertible instruments. The company, worth approximately INR7.5 billion ($170 milllion), is 50%-owned by the Agarwal family, who have recently sought capital to pay off corporate debt estimated at INR4-5 billion.

Gati operates as a shipping and courier company that picks up, ships and delivers packages door-to-door. It claims to have delivered 43 million packages in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, up 10 million from the pervious year. The company competes with India's top delivery providers DHL, Fedex, UPS and TNT, who have ramped up market share in the past through their warehouses and distribution networks. In light of this, a source told the Times that Gati may seek a strategic partner to bolster its footprint in the sector.

The news comes during an active summer for Apollo in India. In July, Apollo and ICICI Venture announced they would launch a joint venture non-banking finance company to tap the country's growing financial services sector, and in June Apollo invested $500 million in pipe manufacturer Welspun Corp., marking one of the largest private equity transactions in India this year and the largest that Apollo has made in the market to date.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Support services
• Apollo Global Management