TPG eyeing stake in Belgium’s La Poste
TPG NV is watching developments on the European postal markets ‘with great interest’ and will carefully consider any opportunity that may arise, said TPG spokesman Tanno Massar.
His comments follow a report in Belgian financial daily De Tijd that said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will tell parliament next week that the publicly-owned postal service De Post/La Poste may look for a private partner.
Analysts consider TPG a likely candidate to acquire a stake in the Belgian postal service.
‘We’ll have to wait and see how the situation develops. At the moment, it is only a draft proposal,’ Massar said.
In October last year, TPG CEO Peter Bakker said the Dutch postal operator would only be interested in buying a stake in De Post if it could be a majority shareholder.
‘If the opportunity presents itself, we are clearly candidates for entry into the capital of (Belgian) Post. But on condition that we could hold the majority,’ Bakker told L’Echo newspaper at the time, noting the majority stake need not be acquired in one single operation.
Massar noted that TPG’s aim to eventually have a prospect of holding a majority interest in postal operators is ‘no hard and fast rule.’
He also referred to TPG’s recent non-binding preliminary bid for a 25 pct stake in Post Danmark, as a first step in a sales process organised by the Danish government.
