TNT advocates liberalisation of postal market – level playing field with UK and Germany prerequisite for further liberalisation

Level playing field with United Kingdom and Germany prerequisite for further liberalisation

Friday, 11 November 2005 – TNT has taken note of the Council of Ministers’ decision to request advice from the Council of State regarding the proposal for a new postal act. In light of the proposed full liberalisation of the postal market in the Netherlands, the present Dutch Postal Act will need to be amended.

TNT is a proponent of postal liberalisation, provided a level playing field is created in Europe. According to the Postal Memorandum, liberalisation in the Netherlands will have to keep in step with the rate of liberalisation and actual competitive opportunities in Germany and the United Kingdom.

In addition to evaluating the regulations, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will also investigate the existing obstacles in the UK and German postal markets. The results are expected in early January. TNT also regularly charts the present situation in both markets and recently announced a new independent study.

TNT has established that a level playing field does not exist at present. Compared to Royal Mail and Deutsche Post, new entrants to the UK and German postal markets are still disadvantaged by the VAT system. Other issues include licensing conditions, anti-competitive regulation of network access and rates, and market obstruction by both national postal companies. These problems do not exist in the Dutch market, which means that competition is already developing rapidly.

TNT emphasises that the new laws and regulations must properly reflect the economic characteristics of the postal market, which differ from those in the telecommunications and energy markets. Unnecessary sector-specific regulation will lead to distortion of the market. TNT is also urging for sufficient attention to be paid to lessening the administrative burden.

The legislative proposal is an elaboration of last year’s Postal Memorandum and the Supplement to the Postal Memorandum. The prerequisite of a level playing field was set out in these documents.

Notes to editors

TNT N.V.) is a global provider of mail, express and logistics services. The group employs over 161,000 people in 63 countries and serves over 200 countries. For 2004 the company reported sales of € 12.6 billion. TNT N.V. is publicly listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, New York, London and Frankfurt. The TNT N.V. website is: http://group.tnt.com

For further information please contact:

Daphne Andriesse
Senior Press Officer TNT Group Media Relations
Tel: + 31 20 500 6224
Mobile: +31 6 109 187 90
E-mail: [email protected]

Mike Richardson
Director Investor Relations
tel: +31 20 500 6241
Mob: +31 623 368 393
email: [email protected]

David van Hoytema
Manager Investor Relations
tel: +31 20 500 6597
fax: +31 651 968 158
email: [email protected]