Deutsche Post reports lower earnings, cites drop in stamp prices
Mail and express delivery company Deutsche Post AG said Friday that lower stamp prices in its German home market and a weaker dollar caused its third-quarter net profit to drop 7.6% despite a 2.6% rise in sales.
Net profit fell to euro219 million ($252 million) from euro237 million in the same period a year ago, while revenue rose to €9.71 billion ($11.16 billion) from euro9.46 billion.
Company spokesman Uwe Bensien said the main reasons for the bottom-line decline were lower mail prices in Germany and a weaker dollar, since the accounting of recent acquisitions such as its DHL Worldwide Express Inc. subsidiary is done in dollars.
Deutsche Post, which is majority-owned by the German government, has a mail monopoly in Germany until 2007 and must accept government regulators’ stamp rates, which were cut 4.7%for letters and postcards this year.
In addition, interest rates are low, hurting earnings at Deutsche Post’s Postbank AG unit, a savings bank.
