Tag: Germany

The management of Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, has stressed that financial services will remain a core area of business following the company’s stock market flotation, planned for the autumn of the coming year. The company intends to retain its majority stake in Deutsche Postbank, its banking subsidiary, for some years following the IPO.

Deutsche Post, the German postal service, has confirmed its profit forecast for 2003. The company expects to achieve an ebita of at least €2.9bn. This is almost as high as for last year, despite a drop of €300m resulting from a reduction in postage imposed by the regulatory authority.

German postal and logistics group Deutsche Post is staying with its operating profit forecast of €2.9 billion ($3.6 billion) for this year, its chief executive was quoted as saying. “Our guidance is and remains that we will have an operating profit of at least 2.9 billion euros,” CEO Klaus Zumwinkel said in an interview with German financial daily Boersen-Zeitung. “Now, with the year coming to its end, I can say: We have no reason whatsoever to divert from this forecast,” he said, referring to earnings before interest, tax and amortization.

Deutsche Post plans to retain a long-term majority stake in its financial services unit Postbank after it floats the business on the stock exchange in the fall of next year, Chairman Klaus Zumwinkel tells Boersenzeitung in an interview. Its postal services branches depend on Postbank, which generates 30% of all business at Deutsche Post’s outlets. But he also says the Postbank has not yet reached the company’s 15% return on equity goal. Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Morgan Stanley (MWD) are advising Deutsche Post on the IPO, and discussions are underway about how the shares will be split between retail and institutional investors, Zumwinkel says.