How Poste Italiane is truly delivering
Massimo Sarmi, who says he is running Europe’s most profitable postal service, does not want to crow too much but he is amazed at how the UK tax authorities lost two computer discs with data on 25m people through the mail.
Although Italy is not exactly known for never losing a letter and its post offices are famous for queues that can require a morning’s devotion, Mr Sarmi’s previous 24 years in telecommunications have paid off in making PI profitable and ready for privatisation – should that day ever come.
Interviewed in his Rome office, Mr Sarmi cites figures showing that in its European sector, PI, largely because of its financial services divisions, has the highest earnings before interest and tax rate of 16 per cent, compared with TNT’s 12.7 per cent, and minus 0.1 per cent for the UK’s Royal Mail.
Fortune magazine ranked PI in the top 10 “most- admired companies in the world” for logistics, while Cisco in 2007 gave the Italians the “best corporate IP network” award this year, describing them as “the European leader for hybrid electronic mail and document processing”.
In terms of volume of transactions, PI’s Banco Posta in effect ranks as the number one retail bank in Italy although it is still waiting for its licence from the treasury.
It holds EUR 300bn (USD 441bn) in savings. The life assurance division ranks number two or three, says Mr Sarmi, who has also just launched a mobile phone service that aims to attract 2m users in three years.
While Royal Mail plans to close 2,500 branches across the UK over the next 18 months, PI – which has roughly the same number, about 14,000 – added 100 more this year.
Mr Sarmi, who joined PI in 2002, wants liberalisation as soon as possible, but he says the French and Italian governments want the target date put back from 2009 to 2011. The UK market was liberalised in 2006.
Privatisation remains the Italian government’s stated goal, but Mr Sarmi sees no decision on the horizon.
Investment banks have valued the company at EUR 14bn to EUR 15bn.
