Chinese courier company SF Holdings (Group) has entered into a US$6.6 billion deal with a metals company that allows the express delivery firm to list in the Shenzhen stock market through a reverse merger.  

Under the terms of the deal, SF Holdings will swap and issue new shares with a metals firm Maanshan Dingtai Rare Earth & New Materials Ltd. Dingtai will acquire SF and issue new shares to the courier. SF, which is controlled by its chairman Wang Wei, will run the merged companies.

The deal puts the price per share of the merged company at 21.66 yuan a share or 42.5 billion yuan. The maximum number of shares is 196.21 million. SF Holdings, which corners a market share of 30% in China, plans to purchase aviation projects to boost its logistics system.

The deal represents the largest Chinese logistic company to list in Shenzhen via a ‘backdoor listing’. In December 2015, its rival STO Express raised US$732 million from investors via a listing, while YTO Express raised US$351 million in Shenzhen in March 2016.

CITIC Securities, Huatai United Securities and China Merchants Securities are the financial advisers for the deal.