Tag: La Poste

EU court rejects courier complaint on French Aid

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

A European Union court Wednesday rejected complaints from international courier companies who claimed that French state-owned postal services company La Poste unfairly subsidizes its own courier express operation.

The ruling is part of a larger struggle that sees E.U. antitrust authorities and private companies trying to pry open Europe’s monopoly-controlled postal markets while still respecting E.U. rules that allow for government funding of national postal companies serving unprofitable areas. La Poste is one such company.

The case goes back to 1990, when the Union Francaise de L’Express or Ufex, Deutsche Post AG’s, DHL International, FedEx Corp’s Federal Express International France SNC and Service CRIE all complained to E.U. competition authorities that La Poste unit Societe Francaise de Messagerie Internationale – now Chronopost – was receiving unfair competitive advantages over the rest through its state-funded parent company. These alleged advantages include receiving logistical and commercial assistance on “unusually favorable terms.”

The European Commission rejected this complaint, saying that since the matter concerned competition on the French market, it wasn’t an E.U. matter. The courier companies tried to have this decision overturned, but were spurned again in 2004 when their arguments were once again rejected.

The courier companies then went to Europe’s second-highest court, the Court of First Instance, to try and have the commission’s decision annulled. The court Wednesday ruled simply that the commission’s initial decision was correct.

The courier companies may now appeal the ruling to Europe’s highest court, the Court of High Justice.

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EU to examine all German subsidies to Deutsche Post in new state aid probe

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

EU regulators will investigate the German state subsidies of Deutsche Post, once the state-owned postal service, to determine if it bolstered commercial operations with public money, the European Union said Wednesday.

The EU’s executive arm said rivals had complained that Deutsche Post AG used government money to undercut the private sector by selling services “too cheaply” to banking arm Postbank and parcel service DHL – one of the world’s three biggest delivery companies.

Deutsche Post immediately denied any illegal subsidies, calling the investigation “surprising and completely incomprehensible.” Deutsche Post said regulators have reviewed company accounts numerous times.

In Berlin, Finance Ministry spokesman Torsten Albig said the investigation had been expected and expressed confidence the Commission would clear the company in end.

The new investigation comes on top of the EU’s 2002 order for Deutsche Post to repay the German government 572 million euros (USD 791 million) in public money that the company had used to finance a rebate pricing policy for its door-to-door parcel business.
Governments usually pay postal operators to run the costly mail delivery service for the country, but they are forbidden from using the money for other services.

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Belgian La Poste earnings down 76 pct, revenues rise 4 pct

Posted by | Sep 3, 2007 | |

Belgium’s La Poste/De Post, the 50 pct state-owned postal operator, reported half-year revenues up 4 pct but earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) down from EUR 98 million to EUR 23 million (76 pct) due to full-year measures for early retirement and part-time workers.

Without these “accounting provisions”, and before non-recurrent items, EBIT would have been up 6 pct to EUR 97 million from EUR 91 million, the group said. Profit after tax fell from EUR 41 million to EUR 24 million.

Revenues for the first six months rose to EUR 1.137 billion from EUR 1.093 billion during the same period in 2006 due to good performances by international and domestic mail, parcels and retail and financial services, the group said.

La Poste said it now expected for the full year similar results as in 2006, when profits surged last year to EUR 174 million, confirming the turnaround of the company following restructuring. It made a EUR 23.2 million loss in 2005.

“The results of the first half of the year are encouraging, but we cannot rest on our laurels,” said La Poste CEO Johnny Thijs. “We need to be ready for when full liberalization of the (EU) market takes place, which will at the latest be in 2011.

“As well as improving continually the quality and efficiency of our services, we need also to work on our growth. There are numerous possibilities open to us, above all in foreign markets.

“The integration of Peter Somers (director of Belgian Post International) at the heart of the management board reflects our ambition to make La Poste a strong actor at the international level,” Thijs added.

Increasing direct mail and administrative mail volumes compensated in part for the constant loss of volume in first-class addressed mail, although the volume of domestic mail “only fell slightly” during the period, La Poste said.

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Moroccan BAM Creates Postal Bank Subsidiary

Posted by | Aug 31, 2007 | |

Moroccan post office Barid al Maghrib (BAM), also known as Poste Maroc, has set a bank subsidiary, called Finaposte, Moroccan media reported on August 30, 2007.

Finaposte will be created after it spins off the national treasury (“Tresorerie Generale du Royaume” -TGR). The new bank will operate BAM’s postal checks accounts as well as its postal money orders, BAM CEO, Anass Alami, said.

The move is the first step in achieving BAM’s goal to become a postal bank. The spin-off is scheduled to occur on September 1, 2007.

The Moroccan postal office had 858,000 postal checks bearers and 2.3 million postal savings bearers.

BAM’s bank transition strategy follows the example of French postal group La Poste.

The Moroccan group expects to post a 12 pct year-on-year revenue increase for 2007 thanks to the acquisition of a 35 pct stake in Moroccan consumer credit firm Sofac Credit.

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Logibag secures a new contract with LaPoste

Posted by | Aug 21, 2007 | |

Logibag, the locker management and service company that is a subsidiary of ByBox Ltd, has won a new contract with La Poste to supply, install and maintain an undisclosed number of its Cityssimo V2 postal lockers at locations across France.

The contract has been signed with Coliposte, the parcel division of La Poste following successful trials with the Cityssimo Version 1 locker during 2006.

The first order forming part of the new contract has been received and the V2 units are scheduled for installation in August. The lockers will be used to facilitate consumer deliveries, i.e. those times when it is more convenient to collect a parcel from a locker in a chosen location than wait somewhere for it to be delivered – a service that is becoming increasingly popular in Europe.

Meanwhile, the consumer interface has been improved and now includes a 15-inch color touch-screen that will accept credit card payments and print self-adhesive postage labels for parcel shipping applications.

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