Author: Archive

UPS hits US 'bump in the road'

Posted by | Jan 31, 2007 | |

UPS has warned it faces a “challenging year” in the US as the slowing domestic economy puts the brakes on parcel shipments.
Shares in the group were down more than 3 per cent yesterday afternoon after it issued lower-than-expected earnings guidance for 2007 and said the year had started slowly in the US.
But Scott Davis, chief financial officer, remained “bullish” about the long-term outlook, predicting that the US slowdown would prove short-lived.
Mike Eskew, chief executive, said domestic weakness would be offset by continued strength in international business this year, predicting that global trade would remain robust.
Surging international shipments, particularly from Europe and Asia, helped lift fourth-quarter net profits by 7.5 per cent, in spite of weaker-than-expected US volumes in the peak shipping season before Christmas.
UPS has invested heavily in its international network over the past decade to take advantage of soaring cross-border trade and reduce dependence on the mature US market.
UPS is building a new Asian hub in Shanghai, China, and last year completed a Dollars 135m expansion of its European hub in Cologne, Germany, almost doubling capacity.
International revenues rose 10 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 4 per cent increase in domestic business.

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Ltvijas Pasts Postal Co must be sold off

Posted by | Jan 31, 2007 | |

The government should sell off Latvian postal operator Latvijas Pasts (LP), the company’s board chairman believes.
“I have always said — if someone approaches the government with a proposal to buy LP now, when its value is close to the maximum, then this should be done as follows — that’s how much it costs, let’s arrange an auction and sell it to the bidder who offers the highest price,” says the company’s board chairman Gints Skodovs in an interview published in the newspaper Dienas Bizness (DB).
Speaking about potential buyers, he told the newspaper that the Finnish Post is not interested in buying LP. “It is easier and cheaper to invest dozens of millions and create the system from a scratch. If they buy our company, they would receive a whole lot of problems they would have to solve. The main of them is that LP has a thousand of post-offices, two thirds of which are loss-making. LP employs nearly 8,000 people. Why would anyone need to get all these problems?” he said.
Skodovs also reminds in the interview that the government is against the privatization of LP. “We have done the evaluation of LP, which shows that the rise in the company’s value has grown by 18 million lats (EUR 25.61 mln) over the past three years (the value of the company stands at about 54 mln lats – DB). And by 2009, when the monopoly is over, we can make it even more valuable, which will continue to have an effect on the company’s value”, the head of the company said.

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Belgium’s La Poste injects EUR 22m in Taxipost

Posted by | Jan 31, 2007 | |

La Poste/De Post, Belgian’s national postal operator, has decided to inject EUR 22 million into its express and parcels subsidiary Taxipost, according to Belgian media reports.

The parent company believes Taxipost is on the right track to recovery following losses in 2005, although it is not expected to have made a profit in 2006 nor to make one this year, reports Brussels-based business newspaper L’Echo. The subsidiary now has a capital of EUR 44 million, says L’Echo.

La Poste is reinvesting in Taxipost following a good 2006. The postal group, which serves both the Dutch-speaking north, where it is known as De Post, and the French-speaking region in the south of the country, announced operating profit up 57% to an EBIT of EUR 100 million, and revenues up 5% to EUR 1.12 billion, in the first half of the year.

The group expects the restructuring of its distribution network to increasingly bear fruit, although it could be in for a year of industrial strife as unions claim management is planning 2,000 redundancies this year and are demanding a 5% salary rise for postal workers.

Taxipost has landed several important distribution deals in the highly competitive Belgian market over the 18 months, including one to distribute tickets for event organiser Sherpa and another delivering parcels for online retailer Neckermann.

New business since 2005 has seen its parcels volume increase by over one million and the company was last year named one of the top three performing express and parcel subsidiaries of European posts, in a study by the International Post Corporation.

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FedEx Express announces acquisition of Indian express company PAFEX

Posted by | Jan 31, 2007 | |

FedEx Corporation announced today that its FedEx Express unit had completed the previously announced acquisition of its Indian service provider, Prakash Air Freight Pvt. Ltd. (PAFEX).

PAFEX, formerly a privately held company, is one of the largest domestic express companies operating in India, with more than 384 offices and depots serving nearly 4,400 destinations. The nationwide network covers every city in India. PAFEX began domestic express operations in India in 1986 and has been the FedEx service provider in India since 2002.

According to the goal set by the Indian Minister for Finance in the most recent budget, Indian exports will reach USD150 billion by 2008-2009. The acquisition of PAFEX allows FedEx Express to invest more effectively and directly in the long-term growth and prosperity of India’s economy.

The acquisition consolidates the resources of the two companies and ensures customers continue to receive the same reliable, seamless service they have come to expect from FedEx.

“As a fast-growing, market-driven economy that recorded 8.4 percent growth between 2005 and 2006(a), FedEx believes India is poised to take a leading role on the world’s stage as an economic superpower, and we want to be partners in making it happen,” said Jacques Creeten, FedEx Express vice president – India.

PAFEX day-to-day services will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future.

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UPS profit is up. Slower Growth Seen

Posted by | Jan 31, 2007 | |

United Parcel Service Inc. reported a 7.5 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings yesterday, but said that profit growth would slow this year.

Shares of United Parcel fell 95 cents on the news, closing at USD72.70.
Net income rose to USD1.13 billion, or USD1.04 a share, from USD1.05 billion, or 95 cents, in the period a year earlier, the company said yesterday. Sales increased 5.6 percent, to USD12.63 billion.

United Parcel said profit growth would lag behind last year’s 11.2 percent rate because slowing industrial production would curb high-margin air shipments.

U.P.S.’s 2007 forecast calls for profit of USD4.10 to USD4.25 a share, compared with last year’s USD3.86. That would be an increase of 6.2 percent to 10 percent.

The company’s fourth-quarter results matched forecasts for earnings of USD1.04 a share, the average of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts had estimated 2007 earnings of USD4.30 a share.

“We are expecting the first half of the year to be somewhat flat,” the chief financial officer, D. Scott Davis, said. “It’s just a moderating economy that we expect to get back on trend by the end of 2007, early 2008.”

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Argentina DHL Express opens three offices in Buenos Aires

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

DHL Express has opened three new service centres in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

Two of the service centres are in the shopping centres Buenos Aires Design and Alto Palermo, and there is also one unit in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Parque Patricios. The cost of the new units was not disclosed.

DHL Express announced that the opening of the centres is part of its strategy for Argentina, which also includes the expansion of its services to new areas within the country. DHL Express plans to invest $11 mln (8.5 mln euro) between 2006 and 2011 in improving its door-to-door service in Argentina and covering 150 Argentine cities.

DHL Express also plans to expand its office in the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires.

Currently DHL Express has a chain of 18 points in Argentina. There are 12 in Buenos Aires and six in the interior of the country, namely in the larger cities and industrial centres Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza, Mar del Plata, Neuquen and Salta.

DHL operates in Argentina since 1947. DHL considers that the Argentine economy is performing very well and has recovered after the economic crisis in 2002, which is the main reason DHL wants to boost its investments in the country

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Belgian Post To Repay 13.2 Mln Euro Debt of Courier Services Subsidiary

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

Belgian postal company De Post/La Poste will repay 13.2 mln euro (USD17.1 mln) in debts of its subsidiary, direct courier services provider Taxipost, and will raise the company’s capital by 22.8 mln euro (USD29.6 mln), Belgian daily De Standaard reported on January 30, 2007.

Taxipost has been loss making for several years.

According to the newspaper, the trade unions were surprised with the decision of De Post/La Poste to invest in its unprofitable unit.

If Taxipost is integrated in the parcel distribution services Kilopost of De Post/La Poste, the company will have better perspectives, the De Post/La Poste CEO Johnny Thijs said.

Taxipost has 300 employees.

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Industry shows commitment to enablin women to succeed

Posted by | Jan 30, 2007 | |

Minister for Women, Ruth Kelly, launched a new drive today to step up efforts to reduce the gender pay gap and promote better work-life balance throughout the workplace.

She announced that more than 100 companies and organisations have signed up to a Exemplar Employer scheme since its launch in September. The Exemplar Employer scheme requires organisations to give a clear commitment to reducing the gender pay gap through projects ranging from encouraging women to find out and enter into jobs traditionally done mostly by men, to supporting mothers to return to work, to creating better quality opportunities for staff working part-time.

The first wave of organisations signed up range from high street names such as Asda to city companies such as Goldman Sachs to Parcelforce to construction firms.

Ruth Kelly also launched and opened bids for a new Quality Part-Time Work Fund, available to employers to finance trouble shooters who will advise on how to create and retain more part time jobs for women at a senior level.

Both the Exemplar Employer and Quality Part Time Work schemes have been created by the Government in response to the Women and Work Commission report, which looked at the causes of the gender pay gap. Creating a more flexible working world was one of the key recommendations made by the Commission as a way to way to increase the number of women – and the quality of roles available part-time and flexibly – in the workplace.

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