August 27 - Deutsche Post DHL Group ceo Frank Appel made a visit to South Africa and Nigeria this week, demonstrating the importance of emerging markets for the company's future business strategy.

"Today, emerging market revenues contribute over 20 percent to Deutsche Post DHL Group's revenues, but by 2020 the Group expects this figure to climb to 30 percent. Therefore, we will continue to concentrate on organic growth by investing into promising present and future markets," said Appel.

"DHL already has a strong footprint in Africa, but we see some excellent opportunities to further increase our presence in the Sub-Saharan region. South Africa's exceptional geographic location as the gateway to Africa, and Nigeria's growing gross domestic product (GDP) and diversifying markets are only two of the many important indicators for this."

DHL continues to invest in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the company's Supply Chain and Global Forwarding divisions making total investments of EUR 30.5 million (USD34.2 million) into South Africa.

DHL Global Forwarding has invested EUR 16 million (USD17.9 million) in a logistics facility, located at the Plumbago Business Park, which features 12,000 sq m of warehouse space and 5,500 sq m of office space.

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