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Blue Dart Express is in an advanced stage of negotiations with a South Asian firm to strike a strategic alliance.
Sources in the know of the development confirmed that a strategic alliance was in the works but refused to divulge details on the plea that an announcement was due shortly.
When contacted, Blue Dart chairman Tushar Jani declined to comment on the matter. "I am not authorised to talk on the issue at the moment," he said, asking Business Standard to talk to an executive in charge of the development. The executive was not available for comment.
Unconfirmed sources said the partner for the alliance could be Temasek Holdings of Singapore. When contacted, Manish Kejriwal, managing director of Temasek Holdings' India operations, refused to comment on the development.
The Blue Dart counter witnessed frenzied activity on Monday with the stock touching a 52-week high of Rs 237.60.
The stock closed at 229.85 on the Bombay Stock Exhange. The intra-day low was Rs 204. The cumulative average of trading was nearly 79,000, compared with the five-day average of a shade over 23,021 shares.
Sources close to the development said the strategic alliance would lead to a dilution of stake by the promoters who along with the persons acting in concert hold 51.21 per cent of the equity.
The courier company has a five-year sales alliance with DHL, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Deutsche Post World Net. The alliance came into effect in 2002.
It was then announced that Blue Dart chose to ally with DHL as the latter was the numero one international air express company in the world.
Blue Dart has a cargo airline in the SAARC region, with three Boeing 737 freighters.
Blue Dart operates over 50 night and 8 day missions per week, carrying and distributing over 600 tonne of express packages each week via its aircraft, besides an additional 1,000 tonne per week of packages through other modes.