TNT to look at all options 'very thoroughly' if minimum wage adopted in Germany

TNT NV will look ‘very thoroughly’ at all options, should the German government approve the postal minimum wage that is reportedly pushing Axel Springer AG to consider winding up its mail services unit PIN Group by Christmas.

The upper house of the German parliament, in which German states are represented, is likely to decide on the minimum wage at its meeting scheduled for December 20.

‘If the minimum wage is adopted in Germany then we will look at our options very thoroughly, everything is open. And we will include the winding up of PIN in our option finding or scenario thinking, once the fact is confirmed,’ TNT spokesman Pieter Schaffels said.

This morning, the Financial Times Deutschland reported that majority shareholder Axel Springer plans to wind up its mail services unit PIN by Christmas and write-down 600 mln eur due to the bankruptcy.

The German government recently decided to expand minimum wages to 8-9.80 eur per hour agreed by services union ver.di and an employer’s association dominated by incumbent Deutsche Post World Net AG to the whole industry, challenging margins of Deutsche Post’s competitors.