Year: 2005

Target on road to £250m float

Posted by | May 25, 2005 | |

Directors at Warrington parcel firm Target Express are mulling a possible flotation of the business in a move that could value it up to £250m.

It is understood the firm’s venture capital investor 3i, which backed a management buyout in 2000, is now keen to exit the firm.

Target Express has appointed advisers Hawkpoint to look at its future and a possible sale is also believed to be high on the list of options.

Sources close to Target Express, confirmed that 3i, which owns 70 per cent of the business, is looking for an exit.

In a statement, chairman David Hoare said: “We are profitable and very cash generative so there is no need to do anything from a funding standpoint. But we always look at ways to increase our business and we will look at the whole range of options.”

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Deutsche Post may face legal action from GLS

Posted by | May 24, 2005 | |

General Logistics Systems (GLS), the German parcel forwarding subsidiary of UK postal group Royal Mail, is threatening legal action against German postal operator Deutsche Post. GLS, formerly named German Parcel, is demanding access to the delivery service of Deutsche Post as part of a plan to expand into letter deliveries. It argues that the discounts allowed by the postal service operator to rivals for the consignment of pre-sorted letters are insufficient at a maximum of 20 per cent. GLS is planning to collect letters from customers, carry out sorting and transfer the mail to the distribution network of Deutsche Post, but this plan has been rejected by Deutsche Post so far.

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Japan Post’s parcel delivery orders hit record in fy ’04

Posted by | May 24, 2005 | |

The number of parcels delivered by Japan Post under its “Yu-Pack” service grew to a record 215 million in fiscal 2004, which ended in March, backed by the public enterprise’s redoubled order-taking efforts, it was learned Tuesday.
The figure easily eclipsed the previous all-time high of 184.72 million parcels delivered in fiscal 1970. Japan Post, as a result, has likely increased its share in the nation’s door-to-door parcel delivery service market to 7.1 pct from around 6 pct. In a bid to beat private-sector rivals that have steadily expanded their market shares, Japan Post announced rate cuts last autumn and employed major convenience store operator Lawson Inc. as an agent to accept parcels on its behalf.

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Promulgation of new French Postal Law

Posted by | May 24, 2005 | |

New legislation on the postal sector in France, which, by 1 January 2006, will authorize the state postal service operator La Poste to create an establishment and will also open the postal sector to competition, has been promulgated in a state legal publication.

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DPD CZ raised its proceeds by one-quarter

Posted by | May 23, 2005 | |

DPD Czech Republic, post firm, increased the number of its delivered piece parcels by 18 percent to CEK 4 mil pieces in 2004 compared to 2003. The proceeds of DPD CZ, which is a branch of the international group GeoPost, increased by 23 percent in 2004 compared to 2003. Besides, DPD CZ increased the number of international parcels by more than 300 percent during the same period. The growth of the firm’s proceeds was influenced mainly the entrance of the Czech Republic to the EU in 2004 and the cancellation of the compulsory customs clearence.

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Ceska Posta monopoly to be reduced to 50-gram letters next year

Posted by | May 23, 2005 | |

Ceska posta, the Czech Post Office, will see its monopoly position reduced next year and while now it is the sole company to deliver mail weighing less than 100 grams, next year it will be only letters up to 50 grams, the IT Ministry told CTK today. As for the price, now it can charge 3-times the current price, which will be cut to 2.5-times that price. Mail weighing 50 to 100 grams now make up less than 2 pct of some 700 million letters delivered annually at the moment. Ceska posta estimates that due to the market liberalisation it would lose half of them at the most, which would cause it a loss worth several dozens of millions of crowns. “Of course, there will be a fall, but it will not be too big,” Vancura said.

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Japanese Lower house sets up special postal bills panel

Posted by | May 23, 2005 | |

The House of Representatives decided Friday to set up a 45-member special committee to scrutinize the government-sponsored bills to privatise Japan Post.

Most opposition lawmakers boycotted the plenary session that endorsed the launch and plan to ignore the panel, but the governing coalition decided to start deliberations anyway next Tuesday, coalition lawmakers said.

Executives of Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party plan to extend the current Diet session from June 19 to early August, according to the party’s House of Councillors Secretary General Toranosuke Katayama.

The planned extension goes against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s stance to enact the bills without extending the 150-day session. But LDP executives say they aim to gain lower house approval for the bills by June 19 and then pass them through the upper house during the extended period.

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UK Royal Mail to deliver new plan on ownership

Posted by | May 23, 2005 | |

Allan Leighton, the chairman of Royal Mail, will present plans for wider ownership of the postal group to the Department of Trade and Industry in the next few weeks.

The proposals, included in a five-year plan for the business, will trigger a heated political fight over the future of Royal Mail but will be presented as moves to give employees more ownership rather than a creeping privatisation.

This week Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will hear concerns from the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which he once led before he became an MP eight years ago.

Mr Leighton will tell ministers that Royal Mail needs the scale of investment that can be achieved only by bringing in outside capital.

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