Year: 2005

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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Austrian Post AG plans own business parcel services

Posted by | Sep 2, 2005 | |

Austrian postal company Oesterreichische Post AG will sever its cooperation with parcel service company DPD and launch its own business-to-business parcel services in 2007, the Post AG supervisory board decided on September 2, 2005.
In the next two weeks Post AG will also buy a parcel service company in the Czech Republic, which CEO Anton Wais called the largest acquisition in the history of Post AG, referring to a well-known company. Wais, however, gave no details. Following the withdrawal from DPD Post AG is also considering acquisitions in Hungary and Bulgaria. Recently it bought Hungary’s direct handbill distributor Feibra.

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UPS to raise cap on air fuel surcharge

Posted by | Sep 2, 2005 | |

UPS today announced plans to raise its cap to 12.5% on the fuel surcharge applied to UPS Next Day Air®, UPS 2nd Day Air® and UPS 3 Day Select® and U.S. international air services beginning Oct. 3. A fuel surcharge on UPS Ground services is unaffected and continues to fluctuate monthly based on the U.S. Energy Department’s On-Highway Diesel price. It will stand at 3% in September.
UPS introduced a 9.5% cap on the fuel surcharge for its premium Air services in January of this year after prices began advancing rapidly toward the end of 2004. Since that time, jet fuel prices have increased more than 60%.

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What future for Royal Mail as Deutsche Post wades into UK with mooted bid for Exel?

Posted by | Sep 2, 2005 | |

Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail, can only look on and weep. While overseas rivals respond to the challenge of deregulation by expanding into new businesses and new territories, he’s condemned to make the best of what he’s got. Trapped within the Treasury controlled boundaries of the public finances, all he can do to meet the challenge of postal competition is slash costs to match the decline in revenues. The already privatised Deutsche Post, by contrast, is moving to reduce its dependence on the German domestic market, where its monopoly is due to end in 2007, by expanding overseas.

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