Further Acquisition in Croatia: Austrian Post purchases ST Media

Another important expansion step taken on the Croatian unaddressed mail market
Closing follows within the next weeks

At the beginning of 2007, Austrian Post acquired Weber Escal, the leader in Croatia’s unaddressed mail market. Austrian Post now announces the acquisition of ST Media, the number two in this market segment.

ST Media has more than 10 years of experience operating in the field of delivering unaddressed advertising mail in Croatia. This year, the company will distribute more than 100 million unaddressed advertising mail items, achieving revenues surpassing EUR 2 million, which represents a market share of about 25 % in Croatia.

The Croatian market for unaddressed mail is in a stage of infancy, and thus features high growth rates. Subsequently, revenue growth at Weber Escal has exceeded a level of 50% during the current business year alone. “With the acquisition of ST media, Austrian Post is in a position to effectively deal with the rapid growth in Croatia, and to offer our customers even better services“, says Walter Hitziger, Member of the Management Board with responsibility for the Mail Division.

This year, ST Media and Weber Escal together employ a delivery staff of 600 people, and will distribute close to 300 million direct mail items. The two companies account for about three-quarters of the total Croatian market for unaddressed advertising mail. The close cooperation of the two companies will enable Austrian Post to achieve greater cost efficiency and exploit synergies in the future, particularly in the delivery of the mail items.