GDex hopes to be part of people’s lives
It wants to be seen as a full-fledged courier delivery provider
PETALING JAYA: Over the next three to five years, leading courier company GD Express Carrier Bhd (GDex) hopes to be an integral part of people’s lives.
Its MD and CEO Teong Teck Lean wants people to see the company as a full-fledged courier delivery provider.
And he said this meant more digitisation, integration and applications and making it easier for people to access GDex.
To achieve this, GDex continues to invest in its capacity and call centres. It has allocated some RM30mil this year for this purpose.
Teong said that when he visited e-commerce giant Alibaba in China recently, Alibaba was already providing end-financing services.
“Alibaba was able to process an application and release payment of the loan to users within three minutes,” said Teong at Star Media Group’s Power Talks business series.
“This is something we at GDex cannot presently do, but definitely something to think about. We have to think how to move faster along with the best in the world,” he said.
Teong added that when he travelled overseas and spoke to other big e-commerce players such as Singapore Post Ltd and Yamato Holdings Co Ltd, he found out that their outlook on business is different.
“In everything, they think big. While they are extremely focused and detail-oriented in improving the operational part of the business, when it comes to strategy and vision, there is a different team planning and strategising in a very big way on how to grow. This is something we can emulate,” he said.
An engineer by training, Teong, who is the founder of GDex, acquired the loss-making company in 2000.
In those early years, the business was extremely manual, but GDex started to embrace technology and became one of the early players to benefit from the growth of the digital economy.
He successfully turned the company around within two years, and it was subse- quently listed in 2005 on Mesdaq with a market capitalisation of some RM9mil. Today, this has grown to a whopping RM3.88bil and the company delivers some 10,000 packages a day. Among the local players, GDex is second only to the incumbent, Pos Malaysia Bhd. Teong said one of the most important things in ensuring GDex’s success and ability to grow is to engage and communicate with people. “In our business, we have three parts – the head, body and tail. That is why I have an ‘alignment meeting’ every six weeks to ensure that everyone is on the same page. If I, the ‘head’ want to grow fast, but the ‘body’ is perhaps growing at a slower pace or not managing change well, then the company will be in trouble. “The meetings are important to ensure everyone is in line. The more touch points we have with our people, the less likely the three parts get dislocated,” said Teong. GDex’s share price has also been on a roll. At its last price of RM2.78, the stock is up 64.5% on a year-to-date basis and is also trading at a price-earnings (PE) ratio of 100 times.
It boasts having Japan’s Yamato Holdings as its shareholder with a stake of 22.8%, followed by Singapore Post with 11.21%.
In fact, Yamato entered GDex when the stock was trading at a PE ratio of 70 times, while Singapore Post entered at the 50 times earnings multiple level.
For the third quarter to March 31, 2017, GDex’s net profit increased 9.28% to RM8.01mil on the back of a 13.96% jump in revenue to RM61.48mil.
On a nine-month basis, net profit was up 18.16% to RM25.32mil while revenue jumped 15.38% to RM185.64mil.
GDex operates a network of 211 stations comprising 66 branches, one affiliate, 54 agents, 23 lodge-in centres and 67 reseller agencies nationwide.
As at June 30, 2016, GDex has a fleet of 654 trucks and vans, and a workforce of 2,984.
The largest shareholder is Teong with a 36.7% stake.