More European acquisitions for TPG and DPWN
DPWN and TPG, two of Europe’s largest post offices, continue to drive consolidation in the European mail, express and logistics sectors.
TPG, owner of TNT Express and Logistics, looks set to beat off competition from other European postal operators to acquire a 25% stake in the Danish post office, Post Danmark. The company has entered into a preliminary bid with the Danish government, although it is unclear how long this process will take or how much TPG is likely to pay for the stake. Some estimates put the price at between €100-200m although Deutsche Post was believed to have bid less than €100m. The deal is the first opportunity for European post offices to become involved in cross border ownership of other postal organisations. Consolidation in the market is likely to accelerate through 2007 following more widespread liberalisation of regulations affecting ownership of post offices.
In addition to this TPG has announced that one of its largest shareholders, the Dutch state, has agreed to sell back to the company a portion of the outstanding shares which it still owns. In addition to this the government will place a further tranche on the open market, reducing its holding in the company to 17% from 35%. It is believed that the government would ultimately like to reduce its holding still further to around 10%. However it still retains a ‘golden share’ through which it is able to ensure certain service obligations from TPG.
Rival Deutsche Post, which had also shown an interest in Post Danmark as well as in neighbouring Austrian Post, has had to make do with the acquisition of a 38% stake in a private mail delivery company, Unipost, in Spain. Unipost had a turnover of €63.7m in 2003 and employs 2,000 staff, although DPWN did not release details on the deal.
Also in Spain DPWN has increased its holding in Spanish parcel delivery group Guipuzcoana Euro Express to a majority stake. It now owns 51% compared with 49% previously and required clearance from the European Commission for the purchase.
Meanwhile in Germany there are unconfirmed reports that DPWN is on the verge of buying two of KarstadtQuelle AG logistics units. The operations, Optimus Logistics and Servicelogiq, have combined annual sales of €625m and would considerably enhance DHL Logistics capabilities in Europe’s largest market.
