Belgian postal services company De Post/La Poste will not close post offices in the second half of 2006, the company’s CEO, Johnny Thijs, said on May 4, 2006.
De Post/La Poste customers should be first acquainted with PostPunten sales counters prior to the closing of the post offices, Thijs added.
A heated dispute is expected between German postal service operator Deutsche Post and trade union Ver.di over pay for employees of the company. Ver.di has demanded 4.5 per cent more pay for around 124,000 salaried staff of Deutsche Post in Germany; the company has not yet responded, but has indicated that any increase is likely to be in line with inflation rates.
Read MoreTNT NV expects large investments in the coming years to achieve its growth ambitions on the German letter delivery market, CEO Peter Bakker said on May 5, 2006. Germany and the UK are important markets for TNT, where it aims to grow in a move to compensate the lower results in the shrinking postal market in the Netherlands. The forthcoming liberalisation of the German postal market offers a great growth potential, TNT said. The UK postal market was liberalised at the beginning of 2006. According to Bakker, TNT will need four to five years to acquire a share of between 10 pct and 15 pct in the German postal market, provided that it will be liberalised in 2008. With a market share of 10 pct to 15 pct in Germany, where Deutsche Post is currently monopolist in letter delivery services, TNT will deliver more letters than in the Netherlands.
Read MoreGerman postal service group Deutsche Post AG is more than interested in attracting large financial investors in its shareholders’ structure, group CEO Klaus Zumwinkel said on May 8, 2006 in an interview to a German newspaper.
Deutsche Post has a high and constant dividend yield, Zumwinkel said. The business prospects are excellent and the financial situation is more than solid, he added.
The Labour Party risks one of its biggest showdowns with the unions and the loss of an important source of funds if the Government announces plans to give Royal Mail workers shares in the postal group. Royal Mail expects the Government to outline plans for Pounds 2 billion of state investment and an employee share ownership scheme as early as next week, when the group publishes its financial results. Such a move could trigger the cutting of funds to Labour by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which holds its annual conference the following week. The CWU gives more than Pounds 500,000 a year to Labour through affiliation fees and donates more for election campaigns. The union and Labour backbenchers have voiced their opposition to the employee share scheme, which they view as the first step to privatisation.
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