Author: Archive

Austrian Government to change Postal Law for privatization, IPO

Posted by | Sep 5, 2005 | |

The Austrian government is planning to change the postal law to enable that Austria’s state postal service, Oesterreichische Post AG, can operate competitively in a liberalized postal market, Carl Ferrari-Brunnenfeld, spokesman of the infrastructure minister said Monday. “This is a necessary first step to make Austria’s postal service competitive and to enable the privatization or a possible public offering in due course,” Ferrari-Brunnenfeld, told Dow Jones Newswires. The change of the postal law will be discussed in the cabinet meeting Tuesday, he said. A possible public offering isn’t planned before spring 2006, he added.

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Royal Mail set to ‘lose a third’ of its market when letter monopoly ends

Posted by | Sep 4, 2005 | |

The Royal Mail is to face a three-way battle for customers and will lose up to a third of its revenues, one of its main rivals is predicting. Peter Bakker, the chief executive of Dutch post and logistics group TNT, says he expects at least two serious rivals to emerge to Royal Mail when its monopoly on letter delivery ends next year. Each, says Mr Bakker, will take 10 to 15 per cent of Royal Mail’s business. He was speaking as another of the expected challengers to Royal Mail, Deutsche Post, was revealed as the suitor of Exel Logistics, the UK delivery group. Both Deutsche Post and TNT are already making inroads into the UK postal market, though mostly in what is known as the ‘access’ area. This is where post is collected from business clients, scanned and sent to regional centres, where it is then passed to the Royal Mail for sorting and delivery.
Mr Bakker said his group soon hopes to be in the ‘consolidation’ area, where TNT will sort mail but Royal Mail staff still deliver. It is installing high-tech sorting equipment in its 69 regional hubs in the next few months.

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American parcels giant eyes the bid territory for Exel

Posted by | Sep 3, 2005 | |

American parcels giant UPS is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs to explore whether it should enter the fray for Exel, potentially triggering a bid battle for the British supply chain company. UPS, which is valued at USD78billion (pounds 42billion) and has very little debt, has long kept a watching brief on Exel, which on Thursday revealed it had received a preliminary takeover approach from Deutsche Post, the German owner of the DHL courier business. Exel shares slipped 3½ yesterday to pounds 11.75, valuing the business at pounds 3.4billion. UPS has been building up its freight forwarding operations, through 2001’s USD450m acquisition of Fritz and last year’s USD150m purchase of Menlo Worldwide Forwarding but lacks Exel’s strong presence in contract logistics – managing the supply chain for blue-chip companies.
Acquiring Exel would maintain UPS’s leadership in parcels delivery, freight forwarding and contract logistics.

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Irish An Post concedes stamp price rise would cut volume

Posted by | Sep 3, 2005 | |

An Post has acknowledged that the volume of domestic mail would drop by 10 per cent over the next two years if it secured a major increase in the price of stamps. In documentation provided to ComReg, the telecoms and postal regulator, An Post admits a price increase would affect use of the postal system. However, the company argues that, while volumes will fall, the increase sought would provide a net benefit in revenue terms. It also claimed that An Post needs an increase to fulfil its universal service obligations. An Post estimates that, taking 2006 and 2007 together, the drop in domestic mail volumes will be about 10 per cent. The company is seeking a 25 per cent increase in the price of basic stamp from 48 to 60 cent. This rise has been rejected in a preliminary assessment by ComReg, although a final decision may take another month or two.

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Exel and Deutsche Post rush to make deal

Posted by | Sep 3, 2005 | |

Top executives at Exel are set to meet their counterparts at Deutsche Post this weekend to try and hammer out the terms of a deal with the aim of launching a bid within the next two weeks. “Both sides are trying to get a deal done as fast as possible but nothing has yet been agreed,” one person close to the situation said. The push to accelerate talks between the UK logistics company, which has a market valuation of Pounds 3.44bn, and Europe’s biggest postal group came as investment bankers scrambled to try and interest counterbidders in a potential deal.

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Saudi Post ready for the day of the RFID

Posted by | Sep 3, 2005 | |

Saudi Post’s home delivery plans will be underpinned by one of the largest radio frequency identification (RFID) projects in the world, according to sources. The national postal carrier is understood to be planning to install millions of RFID-enabled post-boxes across the Kingdom as part of a USD270million project to support its new home delivery service, Wasel.
The Wasel project, a key step in Saudi Post’s efforts to transform itself prior to privatisation, will eliminate the need for customers to collect mail from post offices, as the postal service will deliver and collect mail from their homes instead.

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Austrian Post AG leaves DPD

Posted by | Sep 2, 2005 | |

Austrian freighters Lagermax, Schachinger and Gebrueder Weiss bought back the 30 pct stakes which Austrian postal company Oesterreichische Post AG had owned in each of them and thus ended the cooperation of their joint-venture parcel service company DPD with Post AG. Post AG started the cooperation with DPD in mid-1997 by buying 30 pct in each of its founders. The contracts for the withdrawal were signed on August 31, 2005, and the move is effective from September 1, 2005. The price was not revealed.

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