German publishers to compete with Deutsche Post
According to reports, German publishing groups Axel Springer and Georg von Holtzbrink signed contracts last week regarding the acquisition of a majority in Pin, a German company that provides postal services. Each of the two publishing companies acquired a stake of 30 per cent in Pin, although the groups hope to later increase their combined stake to 75 per cent. The supervisory board of Springer have yet to approve the deal. In acquiring the stake, the companies are hoping to build up a service to rival that of Deutsche Post, the German postal services operator. The monopoly that this company currently has on the market for the delivery of letters is due to come to an end in 2007.
Publishers Springer, Holtzbrinck acquire majority stake in PIN
Agence France-Presse English Wire 12-09-2004
BERLIN, Dec 9 (AFP) – German newspaper publishers Axel Springer and Georg von Holtzbrinck said Thursday they have jointly acquired the majority stake in Berlin-based postal services firm PIN.
Springer, which publishes the dailies Die Welt and Bild, and Holtzbrinck, which publishes the business daily Handelsblatt, said in a joint statement that they had each acquired 30 percent, giving them a combined stake of 60 percent.
They also had the option to buy an additional 20 percent.
PIN is a private postal services group set up in 1999 that specialises in letter delivery in cities such as Berlin, Leipzig and Cologne for big corporate customers.
It employs a workforce of 900, handles up to 400,000 letters every day, making it the second-biggest letter handler after Deutsche Post, and is profitable.
Both Springer and Holtzbrinck have recently been highly critical of the decision by Deutsche Post, the semi-privatised German postal authority, to raise its tariffs for newspaper delivery.
