Belgian La Poste earnings down 76 pct, revenues rise 4 pct
Belgium’s La Poste/De Post, the 50 pct state-owned postal operator, reported half-year revenues up 4 pct but earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) down from EUR 98 million to EUR 23 million (76 pct) due to full-year measures for early retirement and part-time workers.
Without these “accounting provisions”, and before non-recurrent items, EBIT would have been up 6 pct to EUR 97 million from EUR 91 million, the group said. Profit after tax fell from EUR 41 million to EUR 24 million.
Revenues for the first six months rose to EUR 1.137 billion from EUR 1.093 billion during the same period in 2006 due to good performances by international and domestic mail, parcels and retail and financial services, the group said.
La Poste said it now expected for the full year similar results as in 2006, when profits surged last year to EUR 174 million, confirming the turnaround of the company following restructuring. It made a EUR 23.2 million loss in 2005.
“The results of the first half of the year are encouraging, but we cannot rest on our laurels,” said La Poste CEO Johnny Thijs. “We need to be ready for when full liberalization of the (EU) market takes place, which will at the latest be in 2011.
“As well as improving continually the quality and efficiency of our services, we need also to work on our growth. There are numerous possibilities open to us, above all in foreign markets.
“The integration of Peter Somers (director of Belgian Post International) at the heart of the management board reflects our ambition to make La Poste a strong actor at the international level,” Thijs added.
Increasing direct mail and administrative mail volumes compensated in part for the constant loss of volume in first-class addressed mail, although the volume of domestic mail “only fell slightly” during the period, La Poste said.
