TLI Staff
New Delhi: Monopoly watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) has cleared Swiss investment group-controlled PG Esmeralda’s plan to acquire stakes in local logistics service provider Ecom Express.
Logistics start-up set up by industry veterans TA Krishnan, Manju Dhawan, K Satyanarayana and Sanjeev Saxena is one of the country’s leading end-to-end technology enabled logistics solutions firm.
“The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approves acquisition of stake in Ecom by PG Esmeralda. The proposed combination envisages acquisition of stake in Ecom Express Private Limited (Ecom) by PG Esmeralda Pte. Limited (PG Esmeralda),” an official government statement said.
PG Esmeralda is controlled by investment entities that are ultimately controlled by Partners Group AG or its affiliates (Partners Group). Partners Group is one of the global private market investment managers. It is headquartered in Switzerland. It invests in a variety of companies in sectors such as IT and IT enabled services, healthcare, real estate, consumer products, banking and non-banking financial services.
Nearly $200-billion logistics sector in India is largely fragmented with very few organised players. As a result, the sector is marred by low efficiency and high cost. Entry of technology-based start-ups have stoked competition in the market.
This has yielded positive results and cost of moving goods has been gradually coming down. It has also reflected in some of the key global surveys. India’s rank in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) rose from 54 in 2014 to 44 in 2018.
With massive scope for driving growth in the sector, Ecom Express has fast expanded its network across the country. It has its presence in all 29 states and operates in over 2400 towns across 25,000 plus PIN codes.
The company claims that it is the first private logistics company in India to envision a full-state coverage strategy to reach every doorstep.