Presentation by James Campbell to the Associaton of Postal Commerce.
Contents: Overview of Markets
II.Universal Service
III.Postal Monopoly
IV.Regulation
V.Evolution of National Post Office
VI.Postal Reform Process
VII.Lessons, etc.
The Norwegian postal services provider Posten Norge AS (Norway Post) announced on Tuesday (22 November) a public bid for all outstanding shares in the Swedish letter and logistics company OptiMail AB. The offer was made through Norway Post’s wholly-owned Swedish subsidiary CityMail Sweden AB. Norway Post currently controls 21.3% of the share capital of OptiMail AB. The offer amounts to SEK18.75 in cash per share, which represents a premium of 37% and values OptiMail at a total of SEK236m.
Read MoreNorway’s state-owned postal service, Norway Post, on Monday announced an agreement to buy Sweden’s Frigoscandia, a regional supplier of temperature-controlled transport of food and other products. Under the agreement, which requires Norwegian and Swedish regulatory approval, the companies withheld the purchase amount. Frigoscandia employs about 1,000 people at 24 special warehouse facilities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Its turnover in 2004 was more than 2 billion Swedish kronor, about USD245 million or EUR208 million.
“Norway Post is facing increased competition in a range of areas and this acquisition will strengthen our position in the domestic market too,” said Klaus-Anders Nysteen, acting head of Norway Post.
European banks have been slow to exploit the distribution capabilities of domestic post office networks, focusing instead on the expansion opportunities provided by organic growth and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), said Carl Holsters, member of the executive committee of the Belgian Post Group, speaking at VRL’s International Retail Banking Forum (IRBF) last month.
And with revenues from postal services shrinking, the contribution made by retail financial services is becoming increasingly significant, helping European post offices prepare for full deregulation of the postal sector in 2009, when they will lose their national mail monopolies.
Read MoreTop 10 per country:
Austria / Belgium / Bulgaria / Belarus / Croatia / Cyprus / Czech Republic / Denmark / Estonia / Finland / France / Germany / Greece / Hungary / Republic of Ireland / Italy / Luxembourg / Malta/ Netherlands / Norway / Poland / Slovenia / Spain / Sweden / UK
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