BANGALORE: The board of directors of Blue Dart Express Ltd. on Thursday approved the proposal made by its promoter DHL Express (Singapore) Pte Ltd. to buy the outstanding publicly held shares of the company at a price of up to Rs. 550 per share and de-list its shares from the stock exchanges.

The board has also called an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the company on September 20 to seek shareholders' approval for the delisting proposal, Blue Dart said in a statement.

DHL Express (Singapore) Pte Ltd holds 81.03 per cent stake in Blue Dart Express, while mutual funds and UTI hold 11.18 per cent stake with retail investors holding the balance 4.09 per cent stock in the company.

Meanwhile, Blue Dart has set up a back-up technology hub here as part of its business contingency and continuity plan (BCCP) or disaster recovery plan. "This was seen as a necessity and crucial to our business considering the size of the industry and the volumes that we handle (50 million shipments a year and growing). We cannot afford to have any kind of breakdowns. In the event of any natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods in Mumbai, the back-up hub in Bangalore will take over seamlessly and this will ensure sustainability of operations,'' Tulsi Mirchandaney, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Products, Blue Dart Express, told reporters here on Thursday.

Bangalore will serve as the hot standby site with real-time switchover in the event of any eventuality at Blue Dart's Mumbai headquarters which hosts the entire centralised applications and the Bluedart.com website.

Gopinath Menon, Senior Vice President, Southern Region, Blue Dart, said the recent proposal of the Department of Posts to ban private couriers from taking consignment weighing up to 300 grams, if implemented, "would have a certain impact on the company.'' He, however, added that Blue Dart was in a better position to overcome the impending stipulation since it charged consignments for a minimum of 500 grams regardless of weight. "Moreover, we are predominantly into packaged segments, that is how we are able to fill our freighters. Otherwise, documents alone cannot fill the planes,'' he stated adding that Blue Dart earned 92 per cent of its revenues from the B2B segment.

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