MBK looks to exit China’s Apex Logistics for $1 bn

MBK Partners has begun the process to sell Apex Logistics, China’s leading air freight company, for about 10 times the amount of its investment.

The Seoul-based private equity firm acquired Apex Logistics for $85 million in 2015 through its third blind pool fund MBK Partners III.

According to Reuters and other foreign media reports, MBK has hired Morgan Stanley as the sale manager of the Chinese freight forwarder. It will receive first-round offers in the middle of this month.
 
MBK is tapping logistics companies, including Europe’s DSV, North American Expeditors and Kuwait-based Agility, Reuters said.
 
The exit attempt comes after earnings at the Shanghai-based company shot up with increased cargo handling for major e-commerce companies, including Amazon.com, in the global pandemic era.

Its estimated price tag of over 1 trillion won ($922 million) is about eight times its forecast EBITDA of 130 billion won this year. That compared with 17 billion won in EBITDA in 2014.

MBK Partners III is also looking to cash out of South Korea’s leading retailer Homeplus and Doosan Machine Tools Co., after securing double-digit returns from the sales of Orange Life Insurance Co. and water purifier rental company Coway Co.

Write to Jun-ho Cha at chacha@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.