(Yicai) Oct. 31 -- Chinese cross-border logistics service provider Jiayou International Logistics plans to buy an 80 percent stake in a multinational road transport services provider in southern and central Africa for USD25.5 million to improve its local logistics services network and enhance their reliability and stability.

Jiayou's unit Sino-Africa International Logistics Investment signed a share transfer deal with four individual shareholders of Reinsberg Holdings, the Beijing-based parent company announced late yesterday. After the transaction, the four original shareholders will own the remaining 20 percent stake in the target firm.

Road transport is a major logistics transport mean in southern and central Africa, especially in the inland countries, Jiayou noted.

Reinsberg mainly engages in road transport and warehouse logistics, managing over 100 vehicles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, Jiayou said, adding that Sino-Africa International Logistics and Reinsberg had already established long-term stable partnerships.

Before the acquisition, Jiayou had mainly invested in and operated land border crossing logistics infrastructure in southern and central Africa. Afterward, it will begin to directly manage and operate local road transport businesses, which will help the company form a more efficient and convenient cross-border logistics service system connecting transport services at land ports, roads, and land border crossings, Jiayou pointed out.

Earlier, Jiayou had promoted the construction of logistics infrastructures for land border crossing in Zambia and the DRC. These projects significantly improved the quality of land transport corridors in Africa's Copperbelt and gradually formed a land transport logistics network in southern and central Africa, the company added.

Jiayou's shares [SHA: 603871] closed 0.5 percent up at CNY17.28 (USD2.36) in Shanghai today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione