Tag: Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post to follow Royal Mail’s lead

Posted by | Apr 10, 2008 | |

Germany’s privatised postal service has announced it plans to sell hundreds of its branch offices to other companies, but has no plans to cut jobs in the process.

A Deutsche Post spokesman said the company was planning to sell the majority of its smaller post offices to local businesses such as supermarkets, bakeries and news- agents. The new owners would then offer the same products and services alongside their own core businesses.

A report in the daily newspaper, Luebecker Nachrichten, said some 700 post offices with about 3000 employees would be affected as part of a cost-cutting drive. Deutsche Post closed about 400 branch offices in recent years and now works with more than 8000 partner-run offices.

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Deutsche Post aims to grow advertising revenues to offset mail ops attrition

Posted by | Apr 10, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG. aims to grow its revenues from advertising as a means of offsetting declines in its core mail business, initially via the vehicle of a free weekly newspaper, board member Juergen Gerdes said.

‘Capturing advertisement revenues is a major priority for us,’ Gerdes told Financial Times Deutschland.

The newspaper, which will have a print run of 1 million, will focus on internet, telecoms and computer news.

Gerdes said Deutsche Post is also considering covering additional industries, such as autos, or those threatened by an advertisement ban on television, such as tobacco and alcohol.

Gerdes, who heads the German mail services company’s mail operations as well as its German parcel operations, said the newspaper will help the company to achieve better utilization rates in its German mail distribution network.

Deutsche Post faces volume attrition due to the increasing use of electronic mail.

He said Deutsche Post is also considering entering the TV and online advertising market.

Deutsche Post already distributes a free advertising leaflet with a weekly circulation of up to 17 million copies. Gerdes said the leaflet will generate sales of some 100 million euros this year.

Gerdes said Deutsche Post is seeking to cooperate with publishing houses in printing and editorial content.

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Deutsche Post sale of Postbank would require changing German constitution

Posted by | Apr 9, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post World Net AG.’s possible sale of Deutsche Postbank AG. may face legal hurdles as it would require amending the constitution, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing a letter sent to German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck by trade union DPV.

According to a law in the German Basic Constitutional Law related to the privatisation of German mail services in the 1990s, civil servants working in companies succeeding former state-owned Deutsche Bundespost must remain employed there.

Some 35 percent of Postbank’s current staff are civil servants entitled to wages according to government pay scales and a pension.

‘It will (be) irreconcilable with Constitutional Law if Postbank is sold and becomes part of another bank’, unless the buyer sets up structures similar to government agencies to accommodate civil servants, the union said in the letter.

DPV demanded that plans to sell Postbank be dropped to preserve jobs and Postbank’s branches.

Germany’s Basic Constitutional Law has been changed 52 times since it came into effect in 1949, including the amendment that in 1994 set the legal basis for the privatisation of the Bundespost, which was split into what are today Deutsche Telekom AG.

Deutsche Post is currently examining all future options for Postbank, in which it holds 50 percent plus one share.

Several banks and financial services providers, including Deutsche Bank AG., Commerzbank AG. and insurance giant Allianz SE. have recently signaled an interest in acquiring Postbank.

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SNCF may spend another 2 bln to 3 bln euros after Geodis acquisition – chairman

Posted by | Apr 7, 2008 | |

SNCF may spend another 2 billion to 3 billion euros on investments on top of the 600 million it is offering to pay for shares it does not already own in Geodis, Guillaume Pepy, chairman of the state-owned railway operator, told Le Figaro newspaper.

He plans further acquisitions, including an imminent one in Europe, and he is interested in port services to complete the company’s offering, Pepy said in an interview with the daily.

‘In a few days we will announce the acquisition of a continental European rail operator, which will open the door for us to new countries, notably Eastern Europe,’ he said.

The acquisition of Geodis, in which SNCF currently owns 42.37 percent, will make the transport of goods the group’s biggest division in terms of sales, Pepy said.

SNCF-Geodis will be among the world’s top five logistics groups, behind Deutsche Post AG unit DHL, Deutsche Bahn and Kuehne & Nagel International AG, the SNCF chairman said.

The Geodis deal will lift SNCF’s debt to equity ratio from 0.5 to 0.6, which is still only one-third of the level of Deutsche Bahn, and the imminent acquisition will not fundamentally alter those figures, he said.

‘That means we can still envisage profitable investments of 2 billion to 3 billion euros,’ Pepy said.

Shares in Geodis soared 30 percent today after Pepy unveiled that SNCF plans to offer 135 euros per share for the rest of the transport company.

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Deutsche Post CEO says no rush to sell bank -paper

Posted by | Apr 7, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post could take its time on any decision to sell its Deutsche Postbank unit, new Post Chief Executive Frank Appel said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“It’s true, we need clarity. But clarity can also mean not selling for the foreseeable future,” Appel said in comments to be published in the paper’s Tuesday edition.

Deutsche Post last month promised to decide soon about the future of Germany’s biggest retail bank, which is an attractive takeover target for other banks, but Appel said on Monday he was in no hurry.

“I’m not under pressure to act. Postbank’s business is going well and there is no reason to rush and certainly not to sell it below its value,” he said, adding that he was still discussing options.

Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have signalled they would be interested in buying Postbank, which has about 15 million customers.

Appel also said he was confident of delivering a solution to restructure Deutsche Post’s loss-making DHL Express business in the United States in May as pledged. Turning the unit around and Postbank’s future are seen as Appel’s biggest challenges as CEO.

“We are well on time,” he said.

Appel added that Post did not have to have a partner for the U.S. domestic business, but he said: “Should there be a partner, however, who could improve the solution further, then we could also take them on board at a later date.”

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