Deutsche Post urges privatization to ease US expansion

Deutsche Post, the global mail, express and logistics group, has urged the German government to speed its privatization to ease regulatory problems facing its U.S. parcel delivery operations. The sale of further shares in Deutsche Post, which is still 62 percent government-owned after an initial public offering in 1999, “would help us qualitatively, particularly in the U.S., ” chief financial officer Edgar Ernst told the Financial Times of London.

United Parcel Service and FedEx Corp. have used the German government’s control of Deutsche Post to buttress their claim that the close link between DHL, its express parcel delivery unit, and Astar Air Cargo, the Miami-based airline that handles DHL’s overnight deliveries, breaches U.S. laws outlawing foreign control of domestic carriers. The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating the claims, but the probe had delayed Deutsche Post’s expansion into the U.S. overnight market.

Deutsche Post Chief Executive Klaus Zumwinkel has said its U.S. business would survive if the DOT decides to deny it access to Astar’s domestic network because it would switch to another freighter operator.