La Poste H1 profits slump due to mail volume decline
La Poste’s operating profit declined by 34% to €453 million from January-June 2009 (which was 37% lower on a comparable basis). The H1 net profit fell by 19% to €388 million. Group revenues declined by 2.3% (2.9% on a comparable basis) to €10,274 million in the first half-year, and the operating profit margin dropped to 4.4% from 6.5%.
La Poste’s mail revenues declined by 4.8% to €5,668 million in the first half of 2009 with domestic volumes down 6.2%. The profit margin was halved, the organisation said without releasing more detailed figures. All mail product categories were hit by the downturn. The 1.3% positive revenue effect from higher stamp prices was unable to compensate for the combination of negative factors, the organisation said.
The parcels and express division also had a 4.8% half-year revenue decline to €2,145 million. Revenues of express subsidiary GeoPost dropped 6.3% to €1,480 million. The global downturn affected all of GeoPost’s international markets, with particular sales drops in Germany (€35 million less than in H1, 2008) and Spain (- €22 million).
ColiPoste, the French domestic B2C and C2C operator, limited its fall to 1%, with revenues of €665 million. E-commerce continued to be a strong growth factor with a 22% increase, and the operator improved its D+2 delivery performance to 93.5% from 92.4% one year earlier.
Financial services unit La Banque Postale increased turnover by 3.2% to €2,441 million. The financial unit was supported by the post office networks which had a turnover of EUR 1.27 billion.
La Poste said that it succeeded in reducing operating costs by 0.6% in the first six months, with measures taken by both ColiPoste and GeoPost having enabled them to stabilise their profitability at levels close to 2008. Overall, La Poste aims to save about €200 million in costs this year.
Looking ahead, La Poste said it expected the structural decline in mail volumes to continue in the coming months but noted that the downturn in parcel and express volumes had slowed since April. In all, 2009 revenues are likely to be about 3% lower than in 2008.
Priorities for the second half of the year include preparations for the legal reform of the organisation and the subsequent capital increase.
