A significant capital "marriage" is unfolding in the express delivery industry, as the sector's "leading giant" SF Holding and the "rising star" J&T Express embark on a journey of mutual collaboration. On January 15, S.F. Holding Co., Ltd. and J&T Express jointly announced a strategic cross-shareholding agreement, involving a mutual issuance of new shares with a total transaction value reaching HKD 8.3 billion. Upon completion of the transaction, S.F. Holding will hold a 10% stake in J&T Express, while J&T Express will acquire a 4.29% stake in S.F. Holding. The helmsmen of both express delivery giants, Wang Wei and Li Jie, stated that this cross-shareholding represents a major milestone in deepening their relationship, signifying a transition from business collaboration to a more紧密的战略共赢. This cooperation will facilitate resource sharing and complementary advantages between SF and J&T. They will also explore further collaboration possibilities in areas such as global logistics network development, infrastructure layout, and synergistic business growth. As of the market close on January 16, S.F. Holding's market capitalization stood at 195.6 billion yuan, while J&T Express's market capitalization reached HKD 101.4 billion. It is noteworthy that in the "2025 Hurun Rich List" revealed last October, the leaders of both SF and J&T were featured. S.F.'s Wang Wei ranked 26th with a substantial fortune of 130 billion yuan, while J&T's Li Jie ranked 755th with a fortune of 9.5 billion yuan.
The "marriage" between SF and J&T involves a transaction value as high as HKD 8.3 billion. With the recent disclosure of the announcement, more details of the SF and J&T "alliance" have been revealed. According to the agreement reached by both parties, S.F. Holding will issue 226 million new H-shares to J&T Express at a price of HKD 36.74 per share; J&T Express will issue 822 million new Class B shares to S.F. Holding at a price of HKD 10.1 per share. After the transaction, S.F. Holding will hold a 10% stake in J&T Express, and J&T Express will hold a 4.29% stake in S.F. Holding. The announcement shows that the total consideration paid by S.F. Holding for the J&T shares issuance is approximately HKD 8.299 billion. Following the completion of this H-share issuance, the net proceeds (after deducting commissions and estimated expenses) from S.F. Holding's H-share offering are expected to be approximately HKD 8.289 billion. S.F. Holding plans to use these net proceeds to pay the consideration due under the J&T shares issuance. According to the announcement, the share issuances for this transaction are interdependent and will be completed simultaneously on the same day. Furthermore, the "Subscription Agreement" stipulates that for five years after the transaction's completion, neither party may directly or indirectly sell the shares they hold in the other. Additionally, according to S.F. Holding's investor relations activity record published on the same day, J&T's Board Chairman Li Jie also committed to nominating and supporting one of S.F.'s director candidates to join J&T's board, provided certain conditions are met, including S.F. maintaining at least an 8% stake in J&T. In S.F.'s view, this cross-shareholding is conducive to fully leveraging the highly complementary strategic synergies between the two parties. S.F. will leverage its core resource advantages and mature operational system in cross-border first-mile and trunk line services, combined with J&T's last-mile network and localized operational strengths across 13 countries, to jointly enhance network coverage and product competitiveness for end-to-end cross-border logistics solutions. Simultaneously, in domestic business, the two parties possess significant potential for complementary synergy in network resources, customer base, product structure, and differentiation, which will help jointly expand their service boundaries. S.F. Holding founder Wang Wei and J&T Express founder Li Jie jointly stated that SF and J&T are long-term strategic partners. They will work together to build a more efficient global smart logistics network, effectively seize the historic opportunities presented by Chinese companies going global and cross-border e-commerce, and create superior global supply chain value for customers.
Prior to the strategic cross-shareholding, the two parties had already established cooperation. Analysis reveals that SF and J&T had already formed connections before this recent "alliance." Even before J&T's listing, media reports indicated that SF was engaged in discussions with J&T regarding an equity partnership, aiming to layout and expand into overseas markets. Corporate records show that J&T Express was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2023. In both its Series B financing and cornerstone financing rounds prior to the IPO, SF prominently appeared on the list of investors. Through these two financing rounds, J&T Express successfully secured a total of USD 2.1 billion. In May 2023, SF and J&T also concluded a significant transaction: J&T's subsidiary, Shenzhen J&T Supply Chain Co., Ltd., acquired 100% equity of SF's subsidiary, Shenzhen Fengwang Information Technology Co., Ltd., for a price of 1.183 billion yuan. Corporate records indicate that Fengwang Information was established in March 2022. At that time, the Fengwang Express network owned by Fengwang Information already covered 27 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) nationwide. In 2022, Fengwang Information's revenue scale exceeded 3.2 billion yuan. In the first quarter of 2023, Fengwang Information achieved revenue of 691 million yuan, with a net loss of 143 million yuan for the same period. As of the end of Q1 2023, the company's total liabilities stood at 2.126 billion yuan. Regarding this transaction, S.F. Holding stated in its announcement that, given the changing market environment for economy express delivery under the加盟 model and considering Fengwang Information was still in its early development stage and sustaining losses, this sale would eliminate the negative impact of the target company's losses on the listed company. After the completion of this transaction, S.F. can focus more on the development of its core businesses, including domestic mid-to-high-end express delivery, international express delivery, global supply chain services, and digital supply chain services. Concurrently, the company will continue to develop its e-commerce express product line, with its flagship "E-commerce Standard Express" product showing steady growth, capable of meeting diverse customer demands in the mid-to-high-end economy express market. As for this transaction, J&T believed that acquiring Fengwang would help consolidate J&T's advantages in the e-commerce express sector and enhance its comprehensive service capabilities. However, some analysts pointed out that J&T's acquisition of Fengwang merely helped SF offload a "burden," while the substantial funds brought in by SF's investment in J&T could effectively cover this cost. During an analyst conference on January 15, S.F. Holding also revealed that since becoming a shareholder of J&T, cooperation between the two parties had already commenced at multiple levels. In the domestic market, J&T utilizes SF's end-point station network for the delivery of some parcels. In overseas markets, taking locations like the Philippines and Saudi Arabia as examples, when SF undertakes international supply chain and express delivery business, it also fully leverages the mature last-mile delivery networks already established by J&T locally, effectively enhancing the stability, timeliness, and customer satisfaction of the end-to-end service.
Regarding the cooperation reached between SF and J&T, some netizens vividly quipped that this is a powerful alliance between the "industry leader" and the "rising star." Indeed, as a relative newcomer to the express delivery industry, J&T Express can be considered a dark horse, and its strength should not be underestimated. This transaction is expected to lay a solid foundation for complementary synergy between their respective businesses. Rolling back the clock to 2019, J&T Express obtained a domestic express delivery license by acquiring Long邦 Express, allowing it to formally enter the domestic market in 2020. In 2021, J&T splurged 6.8 billion yuan to successfully acquire BEST Inc.'s China express delivery business, thereby accelerating its own layout pace in the domestic market. Since then, J&T's development pace has become increasingly rapid. J&T Express's latest financial report shows that in the first half of 2025, the company handled 10.599 billion parcels domestically, a year-on-year increase of 20%; its domestic market share was 11.1%, a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points year-on-year. As an express company that has been deeply cultivating the Southeast Asian market since 2015, Southeast Asia is also a familiar "battleground" for J&T. In the first half of last year, J&T Express handled 3.226 billion parcels in Southeast Asia, a surge of 57.9% year-on-year, with a market share as high as 32.8%, an increase of 5.4 percentage points year-on-year. From a performance perspective, the Southeast Asian market business can be considered J&T's "lifeline." In the first half of last year, J&T achieved revenue of USD 5.499 billion, a 13.1% increase year-on-year. Among this, J&T's Southeast Asia segment, with less than two-thirds of the revenue of the domestic segment (USD 1.97 billion), achieved approximately 2.5 times the gross profit (USD 351 million) of the latter, helping the company's net profit attributable to shareholders surge 213.04% year-on-year to USD 86 million. However, looking at the overall gross margin, J&T also faced certain challenges in the first half of last year, with the gross margin decreasing by 1.2 percentage points year-on-year to 9.8%, mainly due to gross margin declines of 1.1 and 2.6 percentage points in the Southeast Asia and China segments, to 17.8% and 4.5% respectively. As the largest comprehensive logistics service provider in Asia and the fourth largest globally, S.F. Holding holds a pivotal position in the domestic express delivery market. In the first half of last year, S.F. Holding's total business volume was 7.85 billion parcels, a 25.7% increase year-on-year, but the average revenue per parcel decreased by 12.2% to 14.0 yuan per parcel during the same period, primarily due to changes in product mix. In the first half of last year, S.F. Holding achieved revenue of 146.858 billion yuan, a 9.26% increase year-on-year; it recorded a net profit attributable to shareholders of 5.738 billion yuan, a 19.37% increase year-on-year; however, the gross margin decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 13.2%. Unlike J&T, S.F. currently focuses more on domestic business. In the first half of last year, its mainland China business generated revenue of 126.936 billion yuan, accounting for 86.43% of the company's total revenue; meanwhile, its overseas business achieved revenue of 15.216 billion yuan during the same period, accounting for 10.36% of total revenue. Furthermore, according to the latest financial report disclosed by SF, in the third quarter of last year, the company's profitability experienced short-term fluctuations, with single-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders declining by 8.53% year-on-year, a situation that also dragged down the growth rate of net profit attributable to shareholders for the entire first three quarters to 9.07%. S.F. Holding attributed this to the company's proactive market expansion strategies and necessary long-term strategic investments. S.F. Holding believes that although profitability is under temporary pressure, the structural upgrade of its operational network, coupled with the continuous enhancement of its industry-specific and international strategic capabilities, will help the company strengthen customer stickiness, swiftly seize new domestic and international trends and opportunities, continuously consolidate its strategic leading position, unlock a second growth curve for its business, and build a differentiated, strategically deep, and moat-protected comprehensive logistics service ecosystem, laying a solid foundation for sustainable medium- to long-term performance growth. Undoubtedly, the transaction reached with J&T will empower SF's overseas business and internationalization efforts. In SF's view, efficient global logistics is inseparable from deep coverage by localized last-mile delivery networks. Based on medium- to long-term strategic planning, to optimize resource allocation and accelerate global coverage, choosing cross-shareholding with a strategically synergistic partner is a more efficient and optimized approach than building heavy-asset investments independently. With the powerful alliance of SF and J&T, how will the landscape of the express delivery industry evolve subsequently? This will be subject to ongoing monitoring and analysis.
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