Tag: Europe

Pitfalls abound for the new Poste Italiane

Posted by | Nov 1, 2006 | |

Until recently the Italian postal service, Poste Italiane, epitomized all that was awry with the country’s public services: bloated payrolls, poor service by rude clerks and a culture that shunned innovation while prizing the status quo regardless of how inept it made the company at delivering mail.

Following a six-year modernization push ‹ including building a retail banking operation from scratch ‹ Poste Italiane has reversed five decades of losses. It is on track to report its fifth straight profitable year, recently paid its first dividend and may soon be partially privatized in an initial public offering.

Some of its moves, including into banking, have been replicated elsewhere in Europe, notably in Germany and France, illustrating how the most clunky of government-owned companies can be turned into competitive businesses.

But potential pitfalls abound, some of them unique to Italy, like a nascent consolidation in the Italian banking sector. Others are shared across the Continent, like too many small branches and the EU-mandated opening of postal services to full competition in 2009.

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UK Government Minister amongst top speakers at The Mail Show

Posted by | Nov 1, 2006 | |

A line-up of speakers covering the whole spectrum of the mail industry in the UK addressed delegates on Day One of The Mail Show 2006 in London yesterday (31 October). Focusing on the newly-liberalised mail sector in the UK, directors from Royal Mail, Postcomm, DHL Global Mail and UK Mail demonstrated, each from their own points of view, the pros and cons of the first ten months of open competition. The BBC’s Declan Curry conducted a debate with three leaders of customer representative bodies, particularly discussing the need for real innovation driven by Royal Mail and its competitors. Other topics debated on the first day of The Mail Show included demands for further deregulation, lessons to be learned from Europe and different theories on stimulating direct mail growth. In his wide-ranging speech, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, the Postal Services Minister, stressed the importance of balanced regulation with all stakeholders participating with Postcomm to maximise the opportunities which lay ahead.

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Fortis to duplicate Belgian success with An Post joint venture

Posted by | Nov 1, 2006 | |

Having gained ten years of experience working with the state-owned Belgian post office, Fortis has finalised an agreement with the Irish post office An Post to create a similar financial services joint venture in Ireland.

The agreement with An Post is part of Fortis’s strategy to expand internationally, particularly in recognised European growth markets such as Ireland, Russia and Germany.

The two organisations are creating a new retail bank, which will be a 50/50 partnership between them, and will have an initial capital of 112 million (euro). Fortis will pay 56 million (euro) in cash and An Post will contribute the balance.

Under the agreement, An Post will provide Fortis with access to its network of 1,400 post office branches, while the latter will contribute its international experience in bancassurance.

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Liberalisation, privatisation and regulation in the German postal services sector

Posted by | Nov 1, 2006 | |

The public monopoly in the German postal sector had already been called into question
in the public debate in the 1980s. In 1985 the German government, which at that time
was composed of a coalition of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the Liberal
Party (FDP), established a government committee that dealt with possible forms and
steps of privatisation and liberalisation concerning the postal and telecommunications
sector (Wehner 2005: 5, 6). The official start for the privatisation and liberalisation of
the German Post (Deutsche Bundespost) was in 1989. Through the first postal reform
(Poststrukturgesetz/Postreform I) the German Post was divided into three sectors: postal
service, postal banking and telecommunications. The political functions (regulation of
the monopolies) were separated from the entrepreneurial ones. In the course of the
second postal reform (Postreform II), which came into force at the beginning of 1995,
the three postal corporations were transformed into incorporated companies. In the first
instance the German Federal Government retained all shares of the German Post which
was renamed the Deutsche Post AG (DPAG). These two steps were affected by the
(partial) privatisation and the preparation of further liberalisation measures. The process
of liberalisation reached its preliminary climax in 1998 when a new Postal Act
(Postgesetz) came into force. Via this Act the postal market was gradually opened to
competition by successively restraining the exclusive license of the DPAG; the end of
the exclusive license was originally planned to be in 2002 but was lengthened until the
end of 2007. Moreover, the rules for licensing were laid down and the terms for the
access to the market were defined.
In November 2000 the material privatisation of the DPAG began with its initial public
offer (IPO). In the course of the IPO the DPAG was renamed as the Deutsche Post
World Net (DPWN). In order to prepare for the imminent end of its monopoly the
DPWN made several acquisitions abroad.

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