Swiss Post receives “good start” in 2015 thanks to financial services
Swiss Post has said its 2015 is off to a “good start” with profits rising 13% in the first quarter. The state-owned postal service said its Group profit reached CHF 225m in the first three months of the year, helped mainly by its financial services. [1 CHF = 0.97 EUR]
The company’s pre-tax operating profit (EBIT) was up 15% year-on-year in the quarter, to CHF 292m, with revenue relatively flat compared to last year’s first quarter, at CHF 2.13bn.
However, despite all parts of the Swiss Post business contributing to the positive quarter, the company warned that it would need to focus efforts in an “increasingly challenging” market.
Declining volumes in the Swiss Post mail business saw its communication market segment recording a 5.7% drop in profit, to CHF 88m, in the quarter. The firm said its drop in revenue could not be fully offset by cost-cutting.
Addressed letter volumes fell 1.1% year-on-year. However, unaddressed volumes were up 2.5%.
Within communications, PostMail saw its revenue fall 4.7% in the quarter to CHF 706m, with operating profit down 5% to CHF 104m. Swiss Post Solutions revenue dropped 6.7% to CHF 153m with operating profit down by a fifth to CHF 4m. Post Office & Sales revenue fell 3% year-on-year to CHF 413m, but losses fell by 7% to CHF 25m.
Swiss Post’s PostLogistics business saw its operating profit roughly level with last year’s first quarter, at CHF 31m with parcel volumes up 2.2%.
The company’s financial services arm, PostFinance, saw its operating profit up 35% in the first three months, to CHF 172m thanks to the reversal of impairment charges on some of its financial assets.
