Year: 2005

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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Exel could face counter bid to Deutsche Post’s agreed takeover

Posted by | Sep 19, 2005 | |

Deutsche Post AG’s agreed 5.5 bln eur (3.7 bln stg) cash and shares takeover of Exel PLC could be scuppered by rival bids, with American giants United Parcel Service Inc and/or Fedex Corp tipped to spoil the party. Although both Deutsche Post and Exel have agreed a 37.4 mln stg penalty if either side walks away from the recommended offer, the UK group’s board, led by chairman Nigel Rich, has a fiduciary duty to consider any other offers. The German group’s recommended bid is pitched at 12.44 stg a share – 9.0 stg (some 73 pct) in cash with the balance in Deutsche Post shares. Some analysts believe the equity element to the offer could be the deal’s Achilles heel. ‘Despite a mix-and-match agreement potentially watering down the share element for some Exel shareholders, we suspect this will be unpopular and leave the door open to a cash offer from UPS,’ said Alastair Gunn, analyst at Arbuthnot. He reckons major shareholders will likely sit tight until the intentions of UPS, which has reportedly appointed Goldman Sachs to look into the logic of a counter offer, are better known.

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Fedex opens 5 additional branches in China’s Guangdong province

Posted by | Sep 19, 2005 | |

Fedex Corp said it has opened five additional branches in China’s southern province of Guangdong to further expand its service network in the country. The company said in a statement that the new branches are located in Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Zhuhai and Jiangmen. Fedex did not provide details on each branch’s operations. The express service provider now has 18 branches in China, including the five new branches, with service to over 200 cities across the country.

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UK Royal Mail to regain delivery monopoly as Express quits

Posted by | Sep 19, 2005 | |

Royal Mail will regain its monopoly on delivering household post following a decision by Express Dairies to pull out of the postal delivery business. Express Dairies has been delivering small parcels, magazines and catalogues to the nation’s homes using its fleet of milk floats since 2002. Although other companies have contemplated setting up a full residential mail delivery service, so far Express has been the only competitor to Royal Mail in this market. But earlier this month Express wrote to its business customers informing them that it would wind up its delivery operation at the end of November. In the letter, it blamed changes in postal pricing for the move. Royal Mail’s planned move to size-based pricing, which would make heavy items such as catalogues cheaper to post, and a new promotion to win back magazine and catalogue customers, was squeezing Express out of its niche market, it said. Last June, Express Dairies formed a partnership with TNT Mail to expand its delivery business. It is understood that TNT Mail now plans to establish its own end-to-end delivery service but it is not clear how long this would take to set up.

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