Tag: Courier/Express/Parcels

Deutsche Post rises on report it may sell U.S. unit

Posted by | Jan 25, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post AG rose as much as 5.9 percent in German trading after Financial Times Deutschland said it may sell the unprofitable U.S. package and express-delivery unit to FedEx Corp.

Deutsche Post shares advanced as much as 1.27 euros to 22.70 euros and were up 3.9 percent at 12:15 p.m. in Frankfurt.

Bonn-based Deutsche Post may sell the U.S. delivery operation to FedEx and seek a merger partner for the Deutsche Postbank unit later this year, the German financial daily said today, citing unidentified company officials.

Deutsche Post spokeswoman Silje Skogstad declined to comment on plans for the U.S. DHL unit and said the company is evaluating several options to improve earnings. Regarding Deutsche Postbank, she referred to earlier comments by Chief Executive Officer Klaus Zumwinkel, who said the company is currently the lender’s most suitable owner.

“Elimination of these losses will provide a material boost to earnings,” London-based Collins Stewart analyst Andrew Fitchie said in a note to investors. “The clear message from the group is that restructuring is definitely under way, at long last.”

Deutsche Post will write down the value of the DHL Express Americas division by 600 million euros (USD 874 million), the company said Jan. 23. Chief Financial Officer John Allan said yesterday that the company would reveal details of a turnaround plan for the U.S. business in a “small number of months.”

The German company planned for DHL to break even in the Americas by 2009 and scrapped the deadline last year. The postal service bought the business in 2002 to compete with Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. and Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx in their home market.

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Agility, TNT and UPS join forces to help the humanitarian sector

Posted by | Jan 25, 2008 | |

Agility, TNT and UPS, three leading logistics and transport companies, are joining forces to help the humanitarian sector with the logistics of emergency response to large-scale natural disasters. The World Economic Forum has facilitated these initiatives by offering a neutral platform for the development of partnerships between the humanitarian relief sector and member companies.

The first initiative is a set of ten high-level Guiding Principles designed to guide both the private sector and humanitarian community as they work together to provide effective relief to those in need. The second initiative is a unique, pioneering example of collaboration between several companies and the humanitarian relief sector.
The three companies and the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster today on guidelines and conditions for the intervention of joint ‘Logistics Emergency Teams’ (LETs). LETs’ support includes providing logistics specialists (e.g. airport coordination, airport managers and warehouse managers), logistics assets (e.g. warehouses, trucks, forklifts) and transportation services. LETs will intervene for the first three to six weeks following natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or storms.

The companies stand ready to deploy Logistics Emergency Teams worldwide upon request from the United Nations Global Logistics Cluster. The nature of the request, local situations and the companies’ available resources will dictate the teams’ size and composition. As a general rule, they will serve in countries where member companies already operate, thereby leveraging their knowledge of local constraints. A committee representing the member companies is to answer requests from the Global Logistics Cluster led by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and decide on the deployment of LETs.

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FedEx in talks to buy DHL stake

Posted by | Jan 25, 2008 | |

FedEx reportedly is in talks to buy all or part of Deutsche Post’s DHL delivery business in the U.S. in a deal that would help it challenge larger rival UPS.

Seeking to cut losses in the hyper-competitive domestic fast delivery business, Deutsche Post may move to trim its DHL business in the United States, without abandoning it completely, according to published reports on Friday.

Deutsche Post CFO John Allan was quoted by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German newspaper, that a total sale of DHL in the U.S. is “very, very unlikely.”

A deal could be in the works by May at the latest, according to the report.

Shares of FedEx rose 1.6% to end at USD89.96, bucking the move down in the overall market. UPS fell 1.8% to USD69.97.

A spokesman for Memphis-based FedEx didn’t return a phone call from MarketWatch.

Analyst Rick Paterson of UBS said FedEx doesn’t really need DHL’s U.S. delivery assets, and that it simply has to wait for it to lose ground over time to eventually win over its domestic market share.

FedEx, however, would benefit if DHL allowed it to become the U.S. distributor of its hefty package traffic originating in Europe and Asia, he said.

FedEx would have the edge in any talks because Deutsche Post is under pressure from shareholders to produce some kind of value for DHL.

A deal between DHL and UPS is less likely because of the “more contentious relationship” between the two giants overseas, he said.

One of the world’s largest delivery companies with 4,000 offices, DHL traces its roots to 1969 in the U.S. before being acquired by Deutsche Post in 2002.

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Deutsche Post studying restructuring

Posted by | Jan 25, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post is considering its options for retail bank Postbank and its loss-making DHL Express unit in the United States but has not reached any decisions, a source close to the supervisory board told Reuters on Friday.

“There are considerations, but no decisions yet,” the person said. A second source familiar with the matter confirmed this.

Deutsche Post is exploring ways to stem losses from DHL in the United States, where economic weakness has stalled its recovery as it tries to take on dominant domestic rivals UPS and FedEx.

The company said this week it would write down around 600 million euros (USD879 million) on the value of the business after previously abandoning a target to break even at DHL in the United States in 2009.

And Deutsche Post’s chief executive, Klaus Zumwinkel, has said the role of Postbank in the group could be considered following the deregulation of the German mail market at the start of 2008. Many banks are interested, Zumwinkel told analysts in November.
His comments have been taken as a signal in the market that the bank would be sold.

The Financial Times Deutschland said on Friday that Postbank would be merged with another bank and not sold, while Post is in talks with FedEx about the U.S. package delivery business.

Teaming up with FedEx in the domestic U.S. business whilst offering FedEx a joint venture in Europe to enable it to deepen its presence could be the “most elegant solution for the massive profitability problems of DHL in the U.S.”, ING analysts wrote.

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