[THE INVESTOR] Park Geun-tae, CJ Korea Express CEO and head of the firm’s Chinese operations, has proclaimed a vision for undertaking a series of mergers and acquisitions in Europe and the United States to join the ranks of the global top five industry leaders by 2020.

CJ Korea Express is currently the world’s 17th largest logistics firm. By 2020, the firm is looking to increase its sales by fourfold to 27 trillion won (US$ 23.95 billion).

“Especially with the recent presidential pardon issued to our group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, we believe we will be able to push more aggressively forward with M&As,” Park said at a press conference for a contract CJ signed with Lazada Group, the No.1 e-commerce firm in Southeast Asia on Sept.20. 

Park noted that in Lee’s absence, the firm had lost an opportunity to acquire APL Logistics, a Singaporean logistics firm, in 2015.

CJ Express Korea has 106 operations in 22 countries across the world. In 2015, it acquired Rokin, the largest chilled transportation firm in China. And in August this year, it established CJ Speedex, a joint courier it formed with China’s third-largest appliance maker TCL. It also acquired Century Logistics in Malaysia to become the largest logistics firm in that country.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)