Profits down, revenues stable in “positive” year for Poste Italiane
Poste Italiane saw its net profits falling nearly 17% in 2011, but the company said nevertheless it had an “extremely positive” performance last year remaining one of the world’s most profitable posts. The Italian operator made a EUR 846m net profit during 2011, compared to just over a billion in 2010. But revenues were stable at EUR 21.7bn, less than half a percentage point down on 2010.
Not including earned premiums, Poste Italiane’s operating revenues grew almost 1% to EUR 9.7bn.
As it released its results, the company claimed title as the “world’s number one postal operator” in terms of its earnings, presumably not counting global integrator Deutsche Post DHL, which posted a EUR 1.2bn net profit in 2011.
The nevertheless impressive achievement for a national postal operator came despite “tough economic conditions”, the company said yesterday.
Postal service revenues were down 5% on 2010 as more Italians shifted to digital communications and mail volumes continued to decline. The declines were not helped by Poste Italiane being forced by antitrust authorities to stop offering subsidised postal rates to key publishing sector customers.
The company said the “substantial” costs of its universal service were only partially compensated by the government.
Financial services
Elsewhere, Poste Italiane’s financial services brought growth of 1.2% to just under EUR 5bn in revenue thanks to an 8.6% growth in income from current accounts.
The company’s insurance services also achieved slight growth, with premiums bringing in EUR 9.5bn during the year despite a shrinkage of the overall insurance market in Italy. The company’s insurance subsidiary, Poste Vita, now claims a 12.8% market share, compared with 10.8% in 2010.
Poste Italiane said its mobile phone network subsidiary, PosteMobile, was also performing will with an operating profit of EUR 26.3m in 2011.
After turning around a company that spent 50 years making losses, Poste Italiane’s managing director Massimo Sarmi won the coveted Industry Leadership award at last year’s World Mail Awards.
