Poste Italiene posts first annual profit
Poste Italiene, Italy’s state-owned postal services group, on Tuesday reported its first annual profit since it was turned from a branch of public administration into a company primed for partial privatisation.
Net profits of €22m ($23.5m) in 2002 compared with a €98m loss in 2001, with revenues up 3 per cent at €7.8bn. “This extraordinary performance is the result not of accounting manoeuvres, but of a real recovery and reorganisation of the company,” said Maurizio Gasparri, Italy’s communications minister.
The government converted Poste Italiene into a public company in 1998 with the aim of eliminating its once legendary inefficiency and preparing it for the complete liberalisation of postal services in the European Union planned for 2009.
Massimo Sarmi, appointed chief executive last May, told the FT that Poste Italiene was on course for a stock market flotation, probably some time after the second half of 2004.
“It’s my responsibility to get the company ready for the market, and that’s what we are doing,” said Mr Sarmi, who previously ran the Italian operations of Siemens, the German industrial group.
With almost 160,000 employees and 14,000 branches across Italy, Poste Italiene sees itself as a multi-service company which can generate profits not only by improving its mail operations but by expanding its increasingly important financial services business.
At the same time, the company is promising to develop its role as a vital link between the Italian state and ordinary citizens, for example by providing online services through which people can deal with government ministries and local officials.
Partly for this reason, Poste Italiene has not followed the example of other national post offices, such as that of the UK, and closed local branches. Indeed, Poste Italiene opened 67 new offices last year and reopened another 485 after redesigning and modernising them.
“There would be a revolution if we closed branches,” said Mr Sarmi, explaining that Poste Italiene saw opportunities to offer banking and insurance services in the many areas of Italy where, in contrast to commercial banks, it has maintained a presence.
