Tag: Deutsche Post

The German government’s decision to offload its remaining 7.3% holding in Deutsche Post sparked headlines that Germany had finally washed its hands of the former state monopoly, but such stories are premature. In fact, nearly 45% of the company is still held by the government, and politicians remain in charge of a major portion of German telephony giant Deutsche Telekom, too. The sale of the Post stake and a like-sized holding in Telekom was made to the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, (KfW), a government-controlled reconstruction bank. Berlin earned some E5bn(USD6, GBP3.5bn) from the in-house transfer of shares without losing a jot of control over the two companies. Part of the deal entitles the German government to any additional profit from a sale on the open market over the price it charged the KfW. In fact, the KfW – whose director is on the Post supervisory board – will retain its Post stake until mid May 2006.

Deutsche Post World Net AG said the German Federal Cartel Office has agreed to recognize the logistics giant’s right to demand repayment of enforced discounts if a Duesseldorf appellate court rules in favour of the company. Another option is that the EU Commission or a European Court nullifies the previous Cartel Office decision, the company said. The Cartel Office in February ruled that Deutsche Post is obligated to extend the same quantity discounts to its competitors that it offers to customers. Deutsche Post did implement the discounts, but took the matter to court claiming the ruling is an illegal encroachment on the company’s monopoly and is currently awaiting a ruling.

The German government is continuing to sell off the family silver in an attempt to plug the holes in its public finances and is placing further shares in Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Post with the state-owned KfW bank, a KfW spokesman said Monday. The spokesman confirmed a newspaper report which said that Berlin was placing stakes of 7.3 percent apiece in the telecommunications giant and the postal authority with the KfW, which the government traditionally uses as a privatisation vehicle. The combined value of the two transactions amounted to just under five billion euros (six billion dollars), the spokesman said.

Germany’s opposition Christian Democratic Union, the favourites to win federal elections expected in September, have won the powerful support of one of the most prominent German businessmen for an increase in value added tax to help offset the country’s high labour costs. Klaus Zumwinkel, chief executive of Deutsche Post, Europe’s biggest postal group, called for an increase in VAT from 16 to 20 per cent in order to finance the country’s creaking social security system, which is funded by levies on employees and employers.
Non-wage labour costs are widely regarded as the biggest obstacle to cutting unemployment from a post-war high of almost 5m. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Zumwinkel said that Germany’s cradle-to-grave welfare system, dating from the time of Bismarck in the 19th century, “has to be dramatically changed. . . The only solution is an increase in VAT. It has to go to 20 per cent”.

Deutsche Post World Net AG is targeting cost-cuts ahead of the loss of its monopoly at the end of 2007 by outsourcing some services and employees and possibly passing on some costs to corporate clients, chief executive Klaus Zumwinkel told Sueddeutsche Zeiutng in an interview to be published tomorrow.
‘If we should notably lose sales, then at least we can react on the cost side,’ Zumwinkel said, adding the company may for instance cut down on quantity discounts for corporate clients. But he said the logistics giant is currently more concerned about competition from electronic communication than from other companies. Zumwinkel also called upon other EU member states to liberalise their postal markets to create a level playing field within the region. ‘Deutsche Post could even live with being exposed to competition two or three years earlier than other postal companies’ as long as it is clear that other countries have plans to liberalise the logistics market, he said.