German government shifts Deutsche Post shares to federal bank
The German government is to reduce its stake in mail carrier Deutsche Post to 8 per cent in a transaction that gives a federal bank, KfW, 48.5 per cent of the stockmarket-listed logistics group.
KfW confirmed Monday the sale would go through this month. Berlin had been widely expected to force-march the privatization of the former post office since it needs to reduce net public borrowing.
Originally set up as a post-war reconstruction fund, KfW is regularly used by the government as a halfway house in privatizations, as it can wait till prices improve before passing the shares on to private buyers. Its assets do not count as state-owned.
A spokeswoman at KfW confirmed the price to be paid in this month’s transaction would be 1.7 billion euros. At present KfW owns 36.5 per cent of Post, which has absorbed the DHL courier group into its overall brand, Deutsche Post World Net.
Berlin officials said KfW would also be acquiring some of Berlin’s shares in the Deutsche Telekom phone group this year. The amount would be set once Berlin had determined how much it would receive in premature repayments of Russian sovereign debt.
The federal budget assumes income this year of 10 billion euros by shifting state shares to KfW.
In December KfW acquired 3.3 per cent of Telekom for 1.6 billion euros. In November it passed on Post stock worth 1 billion euros to international investors when the stockmarket rallied. dpa jbp emc
KfW confirms to receive 12 pct Deutsche Post stake from govt next week
AFX International Focus 01-03-2005
FRANKFURT (AFX) – The KfW Bankengruppe confirmed it will receive a 12 pct stake in Deutsche Post World Net AG from the government next week. Earlier the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the German government will receive about 1.7 bln eur as a result of the share transfer to the KfW German state development bank. The deal will reduce the government’s direct stake in Deutsche Post to only 8 pct and will increase that of KfW to about 48.5 pct from 36.5 pct, it added.
amk/ec
