Poste Italiane has unveiled a major improvement in profits thanks to continuing diversification,and announced it will enter the country’s mobile phones market.
In 2006, the Italian national postal operator increased net profits by 93.6% to EUR 675.6million, and improved its operating profit by 46% to EUR 1.48 billion. The group’s revenues rose by6.5% to EUR 17.1 billion. Poste Italiane said that the revenue growth had been generated by a goodperformance in all business areas.
The main postal services business increased revenues by 2.5% to EUR 5.4 billion. Mail volumeswent up 2.6% thanks to new products such as bulk mail, and delivery quality improved to 88%next-day delivery. The parcels subsidiary SDA increased revenues by 12.6%. The financial servicessubsidiary Bancoposta increased revenues by 9.5% to EUR 4.4 billion.
The major announcement by managing director Massimo Sarmi was the decision to enter theItalian mobile phones market, which would help to increase the group’s overall corporate value.
Poste Italiane plans to launch a “virtual” mobile phone service through one of the leadingItalian network operators, offering mobile payment services for postal products and other services,and a range of other services.
The postal operator is counting on its customer base of 20 million banking customers andretail network of 14,000 post offices to generate about two million subscribers by 2011.
