Author: Archive

Germany dismisses report it might sell Post, Telekom pension receivables

Posted by | Oct 28, 2004 | |

Germany’s finance ministry dismissed as ‘speculation’ a newspaper report that it is considering partly plugging its budget deficit by selling the pension receivables it gets annually from the former state monopolies Deutsche Post World Net AG and Deutsche Telekom. ‘We don’t comment on such speculation,’ a finance ministry spokesman in Berlin said. The report in the Financial Times Deutschland, citing unnamed sources, stated potential buyers could be private investment banks such as Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, as well as the state-development bank Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW). The ministry supervises the pension fund of all civil servants. A huge number of Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom employees retained their status as civil servants even after the entities were transformed into private limited companies prior to their listings.

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US Postal Service and Discover agreement approved

Posted by | Oct 28, 2004 | |

The US Postal Service has entered into a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) with Discover Financial Services Inc. that encourages more use of the mail and provides benefits for both organizations. “Adopting this NSA with Discover is another example of the Postal Service’s continuing effort to meet our customers’ needs by tailoring products and prices,” said Stephen M. Kearney, vice president of Pricing and Classification. “And we expect this agreement to be mutually beneficial.” Under the terms of the NSA, which was approved by the Governors of the Postal Service, Discover will earn lower rates for First-Class Mail volume in excess of 405 million pieces in the first year of the agreement. In exchange, Discover will accept information electronically from the Postal Service about undeliverable-as-addressed First-Class Mail in lieu of receiving the actual mail. This will result in significant cost savings for the Postal Service. The Postal Service-Discover NSA is functionally equivalent to the groundbreaking NSA with Capital One Financial Services implemented last year.

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Technical problems threaten to delay privatisation of Japanese post office

Posted by | Oct 28, 2004 | |

Privatisation of Japan’s postal service could be delayed two years by the technical difficulties of developing a new computer system needed to split the business into four units. Masaharu Ikuta, president of Japan Post, said in an interview with the Financial Times that tenders for a new system – needed to split the giant organisation into mail-delivery, savings, insurance and counter services – could not go out until late 2005, meaning work would not start until 2006. IT consultants at IBM, Accenture, NTT Data and Nomura Research Institute estimate that it would then take three to five years to build the system, he said. “I reported to the prime minister (Junichiro Koizumi) that from those experts’ opinions, it would be difficult to start the system from April 1, 2007,” Mr Ikuta said. “If the system fails the moment it is inaugurated, it would be a nightmarish event right across the Japanese archipelago.”

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Demerger of DX has investors focusing on Business Post

Posted by | Oct 28, 2004 | |

Fund managers have been reassessing their holdings of Business Post Group in recent days. The principal reason is the expected demerger of DX, the mail company, from Hays, the recruitment consultancy, at the beginning of next week.
DX has been canvassing support among institutions, with many fund managers coming away impressed, supporting the view that they might be interested in switching parts of their holdings.

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Dispatch firm links processes

Posted by | Oct 27, 2004 | |

The Interlink Express depot in Venture Crescent, Alfreton, has become part of a GBP3m UK investment plan to improve its service to small and medium businesses.
The company is launching three new timed next-day deliveries at 9.30am, noon and 3pm. There are also two timed deliveries on Saturdays at 9am and noon.
Interlink Express has also set up a new hotline and email customer service link.

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Deutsche Post to cut stamp prices by average 0.7 pct

Posted by | Oct 27, 2004 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG will cut the prices of its stamps by an average of 0.7 pct for letters and parcels of less than 1 kg, a company spokesman said. He said the company has already filed a formal request with Germany’s regulatory agency RegTP and if approved, the price cuts are effective from Jan 1, 2005.

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UK sub post offices `facing extinction’

Posted by | Oct 27, 2004 | |

Britain’s network of sub post offices is in “serious danger of extinction”, the Government was warned today. The National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) said that urgent Government action was now needed to prevent the network sinking into terminal decline. The federation today set out its proposals to revitalise the system in a manifesto, launched at Westminster with the backing of the all-party post offices group of MPs. It called for a one-off cash injection of GBP150 million for the urban network to produce “bigger, better and brighter” post offices, while drawing up a programme by 2008 to develop the “optimum, viable rural network”. It said the current level of Government support for was doing no more than “prop up” an “ailing” rural network and that start-up cash was need for refurbishment and the ongoing provision of social and economic services.

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Email fails to dent Australia Post profits

Posted by | Oct 27, 2004 | |

Australia Post has increased its annual net profit despite the impact of electronic mail. Profit-after-tax for Australia Post lifted by AUSD40 million to AUSD371 million and AUSD221 million of that will be returned to the Commonwealth as a dividend. Managing director Graeme John says letter volumes were up by 1 per cent on last year despite the high use of email, and direct mail volumes increased by 5 per cent.

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