Deutsche Post AG will keep its majority stake in Deutsche Postbank AG, chief financial officer Edgar Ernst said in a newspaper interview.
‘The majority in Postbank is a fundamental part of our corporation and this will continue to be the case,’ he told German daily Die Welt in an interview to be published tomorrow.
Deutsche Post holds 50 pct plus one share in Postbank.
Read MoreAccording to forecasts, Russian Post’s losses will be some 6bln rubles (USD 230mln) in 2007, despite the fact their incomes will grow by about 20% from 58bln rubles (USD 2,2bln) to 70bln rubles (USD 2,7bln). This was announced by Igor Sirtsov, the company’s General Director during the CeBIT exhibition. He said the company’s losses will grow if it continues increasing the employee’s salaries without any compensation from the government for postal services.
Mr. Sirtsov admitted that Russian Post ended 2006 with considerable losses for the company, however refused to mention the figure (the company announced earlier its losses would be some 2bln rubles or USD 77mln). In 2005 the company announced 100mln rubles revenues.
The post’s head said the Russian Federal Tariff Service is now considering two ways to change the tariff policy. He added that the first way is to increase tariffs and the second – to receive support from the government.
Despite all the problems Russian Post is continuing its development. The company intends to enter foreign markets. And the first in the company’s list is the German market, where Russian Post intends to open an office soon. Igor Sirtsov said they studied thoroughly the experience of their foreign collogues in tuning the postal traffic. The company will act on its own and offer its services to the Deutsche Post and other large German companies on the market. The company say the work results in Germany will show if it is worth opening similar offices in other countries with large Russian diasporas, like Israel for instance.
Wulf von Schimmelmann is exercising his contractual right to resign from his positions as Chairman of the Deutsche Postbank AG Management Board and as Management Board member at Deutsche Post AG as of June 30, 2007. The Executive Committees of Postbank and Deutsche Post deeply regret this move. They would like to express their thanks for the outstanding entrepreneurial contribution made by Schimmelmann in Postbank’s development as Germany’s leading retail bank and a successful DAX company.
The Executive Committees today resolved to propose Wolfgang Klein as the successor for both offices to the Supervisory Boards. To date, he has been the Postbank Board Member in the private customer segment responsible for products and mobile sales.
Under von Schimmelmann’s aegis, since 1999, Postbank has grown to become the largest retail bank in Germany with almost 15 million customers, has established a successful transaction banking arm, acquired DSL Bank and the BHW Group, integrated 850 Deutsche Post branches and has been listed in the DAX since 2006. Since its IPO in 2004, the price of Postbank shares has more than doubled.
Deutsche Post World Net AG denied reports that the German postal service may stop delivering mail on Saturdays.
‘It’s absolutely clear that nothing will change about Saturday deliveries at Deutsche Post,’ chief executive Klaus Zumwinkel said in a statement today.
German news agencies today cited Zumwinkel as saying Deutsche Post may decide early next year to limit postal service to five days a week.
Read MoreThe commission wants to open postal markets to unrestricted competition, forcing E.U. nations to withdraw state support for national postal services.
Proposals put forward by the commission would have forced France to unwind its unlimited guarantee for all liabilities held by La Poste, which makes the company a low-risk borrower. The country’s 17,000 post offices would also have had to share the market with global mail carriers like TNT and Deutsche Post AG (DPW.XE), as well as express carriers like United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and FedEx Corp. (FDX).
France was one of the fiercest critics of the reforms, arguing the moves would crush La Poste and threaten services in small towns. Competitors would cherry pick the most profitable businesses, such as city deliveries, and neglect rural regions, it said.
The commission’s current proposal calls for prying opening the E.U. postal market by 2009.
While the E.U. heads of state and government Friday gave general backing to the commission’s plan, they shied away from endorsing the 2009 timeframe and kept open a wide window for France to keep protecting La Poste’s monopoly.
The leaders called for “further liberalization of the postal markets, while ensuring the financing of an efficient universal service.”
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