Deutsche Post chief urges government to sell its stake by 2007

Deutsche Post chairman Klaus Zumwinkel hopes the German government will sell its remaining shares in the partially privatised postal authority by 2007, the deadline for liberalisation of postal services in Europe, he said in a magazine interview released Friday.

“I hope the state won’t wait too long to cut its stake to zero, even if it still currently holds 68 percent,” Zumwinkel told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel. “Governments always make bad corporate bosses.”

Deutsche Post is scheduled to lose its monopoly in letter delivery in 2007.

“That means we’ll be fully exposed to competition in all our services. The government should sell its shares by then,” Zumwinkel said.

Zumwinkel said he also planned to list the group’s banking arm, Postbank, at some point.

“I could imagine there being a Postbank share in around two years. Until then, there’s enormous potential to increase the value of the bank and we’ll make use of that.”