Will InPost be sold?

Wpis dostępny jest także w języku: polski

At the end of September Bloomberg announced that Advent International was considering selling InPost, acquired in 2017. A few days ago this information was confirmed by Puls Biznesu. According to the newspaper’s sources, the sales process was to start.

One of the main candidates for the acquisition of InPost is Allegro, for whom InPost is the main logistics partner. Allegro has the right of first refusal to buy InPost, but only if the owner of the parcel machines starts a competitive sale process or if he receives a purchase offer from global competitors of the Polish e-commerce platform. This means that Allegro will have to fight with other industry investors and private equity funds to buy InPost.

The e-commerce boom is conducive to good valuation

According to Puls Biznesu, there is no shortage of companies willing to buy InPost. Sources of the newspaper mention, among others, the KKR fund, which credits funds for the expansion of the parcel machine network by a Polish company. Other potential buyers include Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman or CVC, owner of Zabka chain. It is particularly tempting for private equity funds that the business model of the Polish parcel machine network could also be implemented in other markets.

The information about the possible sale of the logistics operator was not, naturally, confirmed by any of the interested parties. Certainly, however, the current market situation is conducive to the exit of Advent, who can count on a high valuation of InPost. Suffice it to say that at the time of Advent’s purchase three years ago, InPost operated about 2,500 parcel machines. Currently, it has 9,000 of them.