Author: Archive

Fortis, An Post venture may see spend of EUR400m

Posted by | Feb 16, 2006 | |

Fortis and An Post could each need to spend up to €200 million on their banking joint venture over the next few years, analysts suggested yesterday. It emerged on Tuesday night that An Post had chosen to enter into exclusive talks with the Belgian/Dutch banking group about setting up a new banking business in the Republic. Neither party would comment on the details of the planned joint venture yesterday, aside from confirming that talks would begin soon and expressing optimism at the development. The move caught the attention of analysts however, with Rabo Securities choosing to lift Fortis’s price target on the basis of continued growth at the group. Rabo identified the Republic as an attractive market for life insurance in particular and said the link with An Post could require an investment of EUR100-EUR200 million on both sides over several years. Other analysts wondered if Fortis could use the deal to test the Irish market with a view to taking over one of the domestic banking players in years to come.

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Sky stretches The Print Factory deal five years

Posted by | Feb 16, 2006 | |

The Print Factory’s (TPF) primary source print management contract with Sky has been extended for five years. The deal is estimated to be worth up to £100m. It comes after a two-year deal, signed in November, worth more than £5m, for the printing of Sky’s transactional mail. The firms started working together in 2003. Last week Northampton-based TPF opened a 2,800m2 site in Brentford, west London, next to Sky’s headquarters.

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Deutsche Post shares slump amid DHL concerns

Posted by | Feb 15, 2006 | |

Deutsche Post on Wednesday abandoned its break-even target for its struggling DHL package delivery arm in the US and said it would stop reporting separate results for the unit. The news led to a substantial sell-off of the stock. The German postal group, the world’s largest logistics company, has been plagued by problems, particularly over service levels, following its acquisitions of DHL and Airborne, a Seattle-based delivery company bought for USD1bn in 2002. It had promised to break even in the US by the last quarter of this year but on Wednesday it merely said that “[DHL] will continue its path towards break-even in the coming years”. It also said it would no longer break results down geographically because none of its rivals, such as FedEx and UPS, did. Shares in the German group, which loses its domestic postal monopoly next year and has been seeking to expand abroad to compensate, plunged 3.6 per cent, making them the biggest losers among Frankfurt’s blue-chip stocks. “If people were being mean, they could argue that Deutsche Post wants to hide the progress of the US operations,” said one German-based analyst. “It is definitely not an encouraging sign.”

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US postal expenses continue to rise

Posted by | Feb 15, 2006 | |

Today, PostalWatch distributed a Congressional Briefing entitled “Postal Expenses Continue to Rise” to Members of both Houses of Congress. The briefing analyzes the US Postal Service’s skyrocketing operational expenses, which are escalating rapidly despite a reduced postal workforce and other postal cost-cutting initiatives. The Postal Service employed 704,716 full-time career workers at the end of its 2005 fiscal year, 82,822 fewer than it had in 2000. However, since 2000, annual operating expenses actually increased by more than USD5.2 billion (8%) despite the workforce reduction. While similarly challenged private sector organizations like the automakers and airlines are furloughing workers, terminating pension plans and negotiating double-digit wage and benefit concessions, the Postal Service has been handing out some of the largest raises and bonuses in history.

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Correios de Portugal gains tender in Serbia

Posted by | Feb 15, 2006 | |

Portuguese postal operator CTT – Correios de Portugal has won the international tender launched by Serbia for the development of a strategy for the improvement of the country’s postal services, Portuguese business daily Diario Economico reported on February 15, 2006. Under the terms of the tender CTT will examine the weak points of the postal services in Serbia. The process will be carried out by Portuguese specialists and will cost 60,000 euro (UD71,000). On the basis of the gathered information, CTT will elaborate the plan for the improvement, whose implementation will cost 200,000 euro (UD238,000).

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Norway Post establishes CityMail in Denmark

Posted by | Feb 15, 2006 | |

At a press conference in Copenhagen today, Norway Post presented plans to establish a subsidiary of CityMail in Denmark. Initially, once the company is in operation in 2007, customers in the Copenhagen area will be offered a new distribution service for mail weighing over 50 grams. In the longer term, extending the service to other parts Denmark will be of interest. When the Danish postal market becomes fully liberalised, probably in 2009, this service may be extended to include all letter mail. “We wish to offer our customers Nordic postal solutions. Establishing CityMail in Denmark will complement our strategy and strengthen Norway Post – in the domestic market, too,” says CEO of Norway Post, Dag Mejdell.

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INVESTING IN CHINA: A dogfight for courier service dominance

Posted by | Feb 15, 2006 | |

When FedEx paid Dollars 880m for Flying Tigers, a cargo airline, in 1988, it was buying a piece of Chinese history. Flying Tigers was founded by, and named after, a group of American volunteer fighter pilots who flew for China against Japanese forces in the second world war.

FedEx, however, was more interested in the international cargo network that came with the deal – including access to China.

The acquisition helps explain why, nearly two decades later, FedEx operates more flights to China than any other express delivery company.

Next month, the company will add a further three flights, taking its weekly total to 26, and work is under way to relocate its regional hub from the Philippines to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

But while FedEx enjoys aerial supremacy in to and out of China, inside the country it faces a much tougher dogfight with its rivals DHL, UPS and TNT. FedEx’s need to strengthen its domestic capabilities explains why it agreed a Dollars 400m deal last month to take full control of its Chinese joint venture with Tianjin Datian W. Group.

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