Royal Mail's GLS buys US parcel delivery company Postal Express

Royal Mail subsidiary General Logistics Systems has acquired US overnight parcel delivery company, Postal Express for around $13.3m, or £10.6m, in a deal that is expected to be profit accretive in 2018-19.

This follows the purchase of Golden State Overnight Delivery Service, the regional carrier acquired by GLS in October 2016.

Postal Express is a regional overnight carrier operating in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It delivery mainly to business-to-business customers across a number of industries.

In the year to the end of December 2016, Postal Express generated revenue of around $42m and delivered some 8.7m parcels.

The business will be consolidated within GLS for reporting purposes but managed as a separate entity.

Chief executive Rico Back said: "The acquisition of Postal Express is in line with GLS' strategy of careful and focused geographic expansion."

At 0925 BST, the shares were down 0.3% to 409.90p.