Aramex, a Dubai-based courier company, has completed the sale of InfoFort, a leading records and information management provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to Iron Mountain, a US-based information management specialist.
The Dubai Financial Market-listed Aramex, which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), said that it will receive approximately $91 million following the transaction. Cash proceeds receivable would be reflected in the company’s third-quarter financial statements, it added.
According to Aramex, the company, however, is still waiting for approval from the relevant regulatory authority in Algeria and is continuing to co-operate with Iron Mountain on the acquisition. The transaction’s financial impact will be “reflected on the company’s consolidated financial statements at the end of the third quarter of 2021.
InfoFort was the Middle East’s first data management company, created in 1997 by Mr. Rabea Ataya, the founder of the online recruitment site Bayt.com. It was sold to Aramex for $13.9 million in 2005.
Last week, Aramex adopted a new operational structure, in which it split its core businesses into Aramex Express and Aramex Logistics to capture a greater market share of the global logistics industry.
As part of the reorganization, it appointed Mr. Johannes Distler as chief strategy officer, a new role to ensure the development and execution of Aramex’s corporate strategy, as well as the group’s international expansion and mergers and acquisitions agenda.
In order to expand its operations, the company is now in talks to buy MNG Kargo, a Turkish transportation company. Aramex was the first company from the Arab world to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market which again went public in 2005 after delisting in 2002, and is now traded on the Dubai Financial Market.
