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Meituan, number one in the Chinese food delivery business (approx. 70%) plans to expand to the Brazilian market. The company aims to introduce its service under the international Keeta brand name in Brazil over the coming months and to invest one billion US dollars in the South American country over the next five years. An agreement to that effect was signed last week in the presence of Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

Investors showed little enthusiasm for the project. Following the announcement the shares of the Hong Kong-quoted company fell by up to 9.9 per cent and staged only a slight recovery by the copy deadline.

Meituan’s announcement makes it increasingly clear that competition on the Brazilian delivery business market has intensified hugely. Rappi, one of Latin America’s most successful food delivery services (CEP News 15/24) has also announced further investments in Brazil. The company aims to spend the equivalent of more than 219m euros to double the number of partners and exempt restaurants from taxes.

And in April, the Chinese ride-hailing and delivery service Didi Chuxing (Didi) announced its intention to revive its food delivery service in Brazil under the 99Food brand (CEP News 15/25). This revival forms part of the investment of 1bn real, equivalent to approx. 157m euros, which the Chinese company is planning to make in Brazil to widen its business activities there.

A reorganisation plan is to save the Swiss Cargo Sous Terrain freight transport project. A radical revamp of the concept was announced last week. Instead of autonomous electric vehicles, goods are now to be transported using a cable haulage system. This should reduce the investment costs by around a third to around 25bn Swiss francs.

Apparently, simulations have now shown - nine years after the start of the project (CEP News 46/16) - that the use of the originally planned self-driving transport vehicles could lead to traffic jams in the tunnel. In addition, the electric trolleys would have generated a lot of heat when travelling and loading, which is why the tunnels would have had to be extensively cooled and ventilated.

The new cable car system would definitely prevent the problem of traffic jams. Rail-guided trolleys would be pulled through the tunnel at intervals of 60 metres on a circulating wire cable. Each trolley could carry three pallets. 

Even if the new concept initially sounds logical and the preliminary focus will be on the first, approximately 70-kilometre section between Härkingen and Zurich, market observers see considerable problems for a horizontally aligned cable pull system of this length.

Whether the system redesign will save the project remains to be seen. The only thing that is certain at this stage is that the project will be delayed by at least five years due to the reorganisation. The first goods will not be transported in the tunnel system until 2036 at the earliest.

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund has secured a majority stake in Dubai-based logistics company Aramex. At the end of January, ADQ Holding Co. submitted a purchase offer to Aramex shareholders via its subsidiary Q Logistics Holding Co. (CEP News 04/25).

By the end of March, Q Logistics had been able to purchase 40.57 per cent of Aramex shares under the offer, thus reaching an important milestone in the takeover. Together with the 22.69 per cent stake already held since 2002 (CEP News 06/22), the fund holds 63.26 per cent of Aramex and thus exceeds the minimum acceptance requirements stipulated in the merger and acquisition rules of the stock exchange supervisory authority. Q Logistics also announced that it will continue to accumulate Aramex shares.