Toll Group has confirmed it will acquire express air freight business DPEX Group from Qantas Asia Pacific.

The move is the latest in a string of deals for the Asian integrated logistics provider, which acquired the Deltec, Skynet and Kwikmail businesses in the middle of last year.

Following the latest deal, Toll Group is expected to generate revenue in excess of A$6.5 billion while employing over 35,000 people in 55 countries.

“The acquisition of the DPEX business is a great example of our growth strategy for the Toll Global Express (TGX) Division,” explained Toll Group’s managing director, Paul Little.

“DPEX will support Toll’s ongoing growth and development in the region.”

The acquisition of DPEX is expected to be complementary to the growth of TGX’s Toll Priority international express network in the Asia Pacific region.

The expansion of the Toll Priority network throughout Asia is a key component of the Toll Global Express strategy.

“As a result of enhanced volumes, TGX will now offer customers an improved service offering and will be more competitive.

“These factors are key to our growth strategy in this market segment,” added Mr Little.

The DPEX acquisition will provide over A$30 million in revenue and is expected to be EPS accretive in year one.

Trading Update

The company also advised in a trading update, while operating profit before interest and tax for the current half year is currently expected to be up by between five and ten per cent on the same period last year, trading conditions have recently softened across some parts of the business in Australia and continue to be challenging in New Zealand.

Lower customer volumes are having an impact on the non-express parts of the business in particular.

Offsetting the lower volumes in Australia and New Zealand, we have seen stronger trading performances from the Toll Global Logistics and Toll Global Resources businesses.

Toll Global Forwarding is also beginning to see improving volumes and the benefits of recent acquisitions.