Author: Archive

UK Business Post warns amid tough trading

Posted by | Sep 22, 2005 | |

Shares in Business Post Group slumped 27 per cent yesterday after the mail delivery company said pre-tax profit would be “substantially” below last year.
The UK’s fourth-largest mail operator expects pre-tax profit for the year to March 2006 to be 10 per cent lower than last year’s Pounds 20m. Only in July the company had said trading was in line with expectations. Paul Jones, analyst at Numis Securities, said: “This is very much a surprise. Business Post had a reputation for delivering good growth and performance. They have been caught out.” The company said the expected profit fall was due to tough trading at its Express business-to-business parcels unit, which accounts for about half the turnover.

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Lib Dems snub call for UK Royal Mail sell-off

Posted by | Sep 21, 2005 | |

Liberal Democrat modernisers suffered an embarrassing setback in their bid to drag the party back on to the political centre ground when conference delegates yesterday refused to back a flagship proposal to privatise Royal Mail. Market-friendly Lib Dems, who make up a majority of the senior frontbench team, had made the sell-off plan the centrepiece of their efforts to bolster the party’s credibility by enhancing its economic liberalism and shaking up its approach to public service reform. Delegates shelved the policy pending further consultation rather than rejecting it outright. But the vote means the Lib Dems have missed an opportunity to take a lead on the future of Royal Mail and will have no formal policy if the government decides on a partial sell-off.

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Deutsche Post denies pounds 3.7bn is too much to pay for Exel

Posted by | Sep 20, 2005 | |

The head of Germany’s Deutsche Post yesterday defended his decision to launch a GBP 3.7bn agreed bid for Britain’s Exel in a deal that will mark a further round of consolidation in the global logistics business. Deutsche Post is offering GBP 2.44 a share, 24% above the Exel closing price before announcement of the initial approach from the German company and 48% higher than the price at which Exel shares were changing hands before the UK company found itself at the centre of bid speculation in July. Klaus Zumwinkel, Deutsche Post’s chief executive, shrugged off some analysts’ concerns that his company had paid a stiff price for the British concern, arguing that the combination of the two businesses would create the world’s biggest logistics company. Rejecting criticism over the price, which is more than twice the pounds 1.6bn the group paid to acquire DHL two years ago, Mr Zumwinkel said the combined logistics business and parcels operation would provide growing earnings to offset stagnant profits from the core mail division. “We can expect attractive growth rates in the future . . . driven by global trade and increased outsourcing.”

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Japan gears up for special parliamentary session for postal privatization

Posted by | Sep 20, 2005 | |

Fresh off a landslide electoral victory, the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will get down to the nuts-and-bolts of privatizing the postal service in a special session of Parliament that opens on Wednesday. The ruling coalition led by Koizumi’s Liberal Democratic Party roared to triumph in Sept. 11 elections for the lower house, clinching a hefty two-thirds majority in the chamber and a decisive mandate for postal reform. The government will get a crack at following through on its campaign promises when Parliament opens on Wednesday, beginning a process expected to lead to a vote on the postal legislation in mid-October. The top opposition Democratic Party of Japan, in disarray following its devastating defeat last week, was expected to come up with its own proposal – a development that government officials said they would welcome.

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Pressure on to make Exel the right fit

Posted by | Sep 20, 2005 | |

One date has been etched on the brains of Deutsche Post executives for years: December 31 2007. It marks the end of the German postal group’s exclusive licence in its domestic market – its biggest source of profit. After that, German postal services will be opened fully to competition. The threat posed by the deregulation was underlined this month when three of the biggest newspaper publishers in Germany teamed up to launch a group to tackle Deutsche Post in letter delivery. They are promising a national network and cheaper prices. They are also looking for other publishers to join the venture.

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Five new UK Post Office appointments strengthen financial services team

Posted by | Sep 20, 2005 | |

The Post Office today announced five new appointments to its financial services team, re-affirming its position as a growing player in the financial services market. Since launching into financial services with Post Office Loans in March 2004, the Post Office has enhanced its offering to include car and home insurance, Child Trust Funds, Guaranteed Equity Bonds and Growth Bonds. With further product launches planned before the end of the year, the Post Office has made the appointments to drive its financial services offering into the next phase. The new appointments are: Gordon Gourlay – Director of Strategy and Marketing, Claire Oldstein – Head of Marketing, Phil Ashkuri – Head of Insurance, Gary Fitton – Head of Lending and Richard Norman – Head of Savings and Investments.

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Nightfreight strengthens management team

Posted by | Sep 19, 2005 | |

Nightfreight has strengthened its management teams following its GBP2.4m (EUR3.6m) investment programme. Tim Redburn has joined as chairman, Peter May, who is the existing regional director for Scotland and the north, becomes acting MD of the IDW network and Peter Louden is the new operations director.

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Express players look to crack the codes

Posted by | Sep 19, 2005 | |

A new postcode system for Ireland, which the government hopes to introduce in the next three years, cannot come too soon, says David Canavan, MD operations and global trade services, northern Europe, FedEx. Every address in Ireland will have a postcode of numbers or a combination of numbers and letters. This will make time-definite deliveries easier, in a country where traffic congestion is an escalating problem and a challenge for express operators in particular. As chairman of the Irish Association of International Express Carriers, which comprises the four major integrators FedEx, TNT, DHL and UPS, Canavan recently met communications minister Noel Dempsey, who is firmly behind the plan. “We [the association] are being consulted on the postcode issue and have until the beginning of next year to produce a recommendation.

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