Parcels drive bpost’s Q4 revenue rise

Belgium’s bpost has reported a revenue increase of 7.4% for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016, thanks to “excellent” parcels revenue driven by end of year sales. The revenue increase, according to bpost, was also supported by the “positive impact of the consolidation of Ubiway (1 month) compensating Domestic Mail evolution”.

The “normalized” Q4 revenue was €690.7m, up from €642.9m for Q4 2015. Net profit was up 1.5% at €79.5m.

For the full year 2016, revenues were up 0.7% at €2,425.2m – but net profit was down from €328.1m to €324.1m.

The volume of domestic mail for the 2016 was down 6.4% for Q4 and 5% for the full year 2016. Domestic parcel volumes were up 21.7% for the quarter and 17.1% for the full year.

Koen Van Gerven, bpost’s CEO, said: “Our major financial object in 2016 was to compensate the SGEI reduction of €27m. We did that and managed to increase our normalized EBITDA by €3.3m for the full year. We delivered a robust quarter with excellent domestic and international parcel growth benefitting from strong online end of year and compensating the evolution of Domestic Mail.

We also took some important steps to deliver sustainable profitable growth, among others the non-exclusive DPDHL partnership for B2C parcel deliveries into Belgium, the closing of the Ubiway transaction and the DynaGroup acquisition which will further strengthen our hybrid network. Our strategy will continue to deliver in 2017 and beyond and we confirm our long term guidance of at least €620m EBITDA by 2020.”