CCI Clears Delhivery’s Acquisition Of Ecom Express

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved logistics major Delhivery’s acquisition of a 99.44% stake in Ecom Express.

“CCI approves acquisition of at least 99.44% of the equity and preference shareholding (on a fully diluted basis) of Ecom Express Limited by Delhivery Limited,” the competition watchdog said in a release today. 

Delhivery announced the acquisition of Ecom Express for $165 Mn (about INR 1,407 Cr) in a distress sale in April.

Delhivery said that the acquisition will help it boost operations and invest more effectively in improving service quality through network expansion and network quality improvements. 

Notably, the acquisition by Delhivery was at an 80% lower valuation compared to Ecom Express’ last valuation of INR 7,000 Cr. The company had also filed its DRHP for INR 2,600 Cr IPO in August last year. It received SEBI’s nod for the public issue in December 2024.

The fire sale came after a series of setbacks for Ecom Express, including losing its biggest customer Meesho, leadership exits, and delays in going public. 

Meesho’s decision to build its own logistics arm, Valmo, took away over half of Ecom Express’ revenue. Moreover, other major clients like Reliance and Amazon also scaled back, worsening the company’s troubles.

Ecom Express’ cost cutting and a focus on rapid volume growth also hurt service quality and led to client dissatisfaction. 

Ecom Express reported a revenue of INR 1,912 Cr in the first nine months of FY25 (9M FY25), compared with the total revenue of INR 2,653 Cr in FY24. In 9M FY25, the company reported a net loss of INR 398 Cr, which is higher than the total net loss for FY24: INR 215 Cr.

Meanwhile, Delhivery continues to grow its profits. The company reported a net profit of INR 73 Cr in Q4 FY25 as against a loss of INR 68.5 Cr in the same quarter last year. It was also the first-ever profitable financial year for the company, with its profit at INR 162 Cr.