Sagawa to buy Vietnamese delivery service

TOKYO — The Sagawa group will acquire Phat Loc Express, Vietnam’s fifth-largest delivery service, gaining a foothold to expand operations nationwide as online shopping continues to grow.

Japan’s SG Holdings, the parent of Sagawa Express, will buy all of Phat Loc’s shares from management. The Vietnamese company was established in 2001 and has about 1,200 employees. Its roughly 60 branches cover deliveries in the entire country. Phat Loc logged sales of over $9 million in 2015, and the purchase price likely will be a similar amount. With a market share of just a few percent, the company is dwarfed by Vietnam’s two major delivery services.