Austrian Post Acquires Direct Marketing Service Provider meiller direct GmbH of Germany

Österreichische Post AG (Austrian Post) announces the acquisition of meiller direct GmbH (to be termed “meiller” hereafter), a 100% subsidiary of the listed schlott Group. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of Austrian Post have already approved the transaction, which is subject to approval by the responsible anti-trust authorities.

meiller is one of the largest direct marketing service providers in Europe. The services provided range from the production of documents and mailings, dialogue services (e.g. CRM, address management and response management), as well as the further processing and finishing of dialogue media (e.g. binding and polywrapping of catalogues). meiller operates production facilities in Schwandorf (Germany) and Nyrany (Czech Republic), and is also represented with sales offices in several Western and Central European markets. Last year, meiller produced a total of 685m documents, of which 175m were designed for international delivery. Starting with its initial business focus on the mail-order business, meiller has succeeded in attracting top customers from other branches in recent years (e.g. Daimler Chrysler, E-on/IS).

In the year 2006, meiller achieved revenues of EUR 112m, employing a total of 1,180 people (business year Oct 2005 – Sep 2006). The enterprise value of the company as at March 31st, 2007, was determined to be EUR 60.5m. It was agreed by the parties to the agreement that the purchase price (enterprise value less net financial liabilities) would not be disclosed.

”With meiller, we are consistently pursuing our acquisition strategy along the value added chain. In addition to the recently acquired company Scanpoint, specialist for the scanning and digitalisation of documents, meiller complements the service portfolio of Austrian Post in the field of printing and direct marketing”, says Anton Wais, Chairman of the Management Board of Austrian Post.

“Based on the acquisition of meiller, Austrian Post has emerged as a full service provider for our customers. National and international customers of Austrian Post now have access to comprehensive services, ranging from the production of their mail items (e.g. invoices, account statements, official letters of notification, policies, mailings) and delivery to the internal processing of documents (e.g. digitalisation and response management)”, says Walter Hitziger, Member of the Management Board with responsibility for the Mail Division and the Parcel & Logistics Division.

In particular, meiller will be able to provide considerable support to the subsidiaries recently acquired by Austrian Post in the core countries of Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia, to assist them in more effectively penetrating these markets. At the same time, the transaction opens up significant new sales potential for meiller in the Central and Eastern European region.

Austrian Post customers with subsidiaries in neighbouring countries can now take advantage of cross-border services in the fields of direct marketing and document production by one single provider.

Austrian Post
Austrian Post, is Austria’s leading provider of postal and logistics services. Total 2006 revenues amounted to EUR 1,736.7m. In addition to the delivery of letters, addressed and unaddressed mail items (Mail Division), the Parcel & Logistics Division is the most important contributor to Group revenues. The Mail Division and the Parcel & Logistics Division actively operate in Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and Germany through own subsidiaries. The Branch Network Division provides postal and financial services, and also markets retail products. Austrian Post has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since the end of May 2006, and is thus the third publicly listed postal services provider in Europe.

schlott Group
The schlott Group is one of the largest printing service providers in Europe. With its division schlott Print, schlott provides all the services required for the production of magazines and advertising materials, such as newspaper supplements or catalogues in all desired quantities, from the management of the printed data to the delivery of the fully processed and finished products. With over 3,000 employees, modern facilities, just-in-time logistics and central production planning, schlott ensures the maximum level of flexibility, reaction time and on-time delivery, even with tight deadlines.