Jürg Honegger, Chief Financial Officer of the global freight forwarding and logistics group Panalpina, has taken the decision to resign for personal reasons. He will leave the Company during the course of next year to take up a new professional challenge. His successor will be announced in due course.
Read MoreFirst, following a comprehensive review of the company’s business portfolio, the company has decided to explore strategic alternatives to determine the best course of action for its U.S. Management Services business.
Second, the company’s Board of Directors has increased the share repurchase authorization to USD 500 million. The company plans to complete the repurchases within six months. The larger size of the program reflects the company’s strong cash flow as well as its confidence in the stock as an attractive investment opportunity.
Third, the company’s Board of Directors has authorized a 2 cent increase in the quarterly dividend. This represents a 6 percent rate of increase and will apply to the dividend with a record date of February 18, 2008.
Fourth, the company is initiating a program to lower its cost structure, accelerate efforts to improve operational efficiencies, and transition its product line. In connection with these transition initiatives, the company expects to record charges of USD 300 to USD 400 million. The program will include non-cash charges associated with the write-off of inventory and lease residuals of older equipment that the company will stop selling as it transitions to the new generation of fully digital, networked, and remotely-downloadable equipment.
The balance will be cash charges related to efforts to lower the cost structure and accelerate improvements in operational efficiencies. As a result of this program, the company expects a net reduction of about 1,500 positions across business lines and geographies, representing approximately 4 percent of the global employment base.
Read MoreUPU Director General Edouard Dayan and Deputy Director General Guozhong Huang, from France and China respectively, announced they would run for a second mandate from 2009–2012.
Both made the announcement during the 2007 Council of Administration session, which ended at UPU headquarters in Berne. No other candidates have so far come forward to vie for the top UPU management positions. The Director General and Deputy Director General positions are elected by member countries at the UPU Congress. The next UPU Congress will take place from 13 August to 3 September in Nairobi (Kenya).
Great Britain also announced it would run for the chairmanship of the Postal Operations Council (POC) from 2009–2012. The POC is the 40-member UPU body that deals with operational and technical issues regarding the postal sector.
In other news, Kenya approved the choice of Chile’s Mario Felmer Klenner as the Doyen of the 24th UPU Congress. Felmer Klenner is a former Director General of Chilean Post. As someone with extensive postal experience, the Congress Doyen has a ceremonial and diplomatic function and is charged with officially opening the Congress.
Qatar also extended an invitation to host the 25th UPU Congress in 2012. A final decision will be taken at the Nairobi Congress.
Read MoreThe UPU’s Council of Administration (CA) ended its 2007 session on Friday. The CA is the UPU body that approves the UPU’s programme and budget, sets the strategic direction of the worldwide postal sector and looks at policy issues such as universal postal service and the reform of the Union, among others. Among the highlights of this session:
– The draft of the Nairobi Postal Strategy 2009–2012 (four major objectives and 18 programmes) was approved in principle. The strategy is to be officially adopted at the 24th Congress (Nairobi, Kenya – 13 August to 3 September) and will act as a four-year road map for UPU member countries in bringing improvements to the worldwide postal sector
– The draft of the Postal Payment Services Agreement intended to replace the current agreement when it is presented at the Nairobi Congress was approved. The Agreement includes general operating principles and clarifies the role and responsibilities of governments and postal operators that provide postal payment services, including electronic ones
– Quality of service measurement targets were agreed upon for the 29 countries participating in the UPU programme linking quality of service to terminal dues, the payments countries receive for processing incoming international mail
The UPU will hold its next and last sessions of the Postal Operations Council and the Council of Administration before the 24th Congress from 24 January to 1 February 2008 and from 4-8 February 2008 respectively.
Read MoreThe Federal Network Agency has evaluated the data collected so far in its
survey of licence holders on basic working conditions in the licensed letter
service and passed them on to the Advisory Council.
“These are provisional results with no real surprises”, Agency President,
Matthias Kurth, said. They show no significant deviation from the findings of
the study on working conditions in the letters market published last May by the
Bad Honnef consultancy WIK. Confirmed in particular was a clear gap in wage
levels, both between the old and the new federal states and between individual
groups of postal staff.
The evaluation currently shows the weighted average hourly wage for staff
employed by operators competing with Deutsche Post AG, depending on the
region, to vary from around six to 10 euros (national average EUR 8.30). The hourly
rates for letter delivery staff are also in this range. However, the national
average is lower at EUR 7.33.
In June 2007 the Agency sent out a questionnaire to some 1,500 licence holders
to collect data for an empirical study of wage levels, weekly working hours and
holiday entitlements. Despite initial legal problems regarding the scope of the
survey, 1,321 completed questionnaires have been received to date, a return rate
of around 87 percent. These companies, in turn, represent about 85 percent of
the postal staff employed by the competitors.
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