French public postal operator La Poste reported a 41.6% leap in netprofits to EUR 789 million in 2006, from EUR 557 million the year before, on the back of stronggrowth in express and parcels.
Pre-tax profit rose 22% to EUR 949 million, from EUR 777 million in2005, as revenues grew 4.3% to EUR 20.1 billion from EUR 19.27 billion the year before. Operatingmargin was up 0.7% to 4.7% in 2006, higher than the 3.5% forecast.
“2006 was notable for a strong rebound in international operations,mainly express but also financial services and mail,” the group said in a statement. “And it wasthe year of unprecedented internal investment in support of the modernisation efforts implementedby each of the group’s sectors.”
La Poste said it was confident operating margin would continue to rise,to 5.8% for 2007, as reforms to its pension finances impacted positively for the first time thisyear.
“Activity in the first months of the year (2007) is globally in linewith the forecasts and the group is confident in its capacity to attain its objective for operatingmargin,” La Poste said.
International turnover grew to over EUR 3 billion (15.2% of overallrevenues) in 2006. Express revenues were up 15.7% to EUR 2.93 billion due in part to strong growthagain in eastern Europe, Germany and the UK.
Parcel turnover rose 7.2% to EUR 1.24 billion as the number of trackedparcels increased to 75% of the total compared to 60% in 2005 and traffic growth was stimulated bythe introduction of electronic commerce. Two-day, on-time delivery reached 91%, 2% up on2005.
Mail revenues were up just 0.5%, though, to EUR 11.3 billion, comparedto the 3.4% growth in 2005, which was achieved mainly through price rises. The first year of BanquePostale’s activities – separated from La Poste on 1 January 2006 – saw it increase revenues by 6.3%to EUR 4.58 billion.
Net debt grew 37% to almost EUR 6 billion at the end of 2006, comparedto EUR 3.78 billion on 31 December 2005, mainly due to a one-off, EUR 2 billion pension fundpayment to the state.
Internal investment was up 29% to EUR 1.136 billion as modernisationwork forged ahead. Four new mail hubs opened and work began on 20 others across France, EUR 200million was spent on renovating parcel depots and sorting centres, and over 1,000 post offices weremade over.
External investment reached over EUR 500 million through theacquisition of B2B small parcel firm Exapaq, document management specialist Orsid and asset managerSogéposte (now part of Banque Postale). Total investment by the group thus increased by 70% to arecord EUR 1.64 billion, from EUR 958 million in 2005.
The group said the improved profitability would allow it to continue toincrease internal investment and reduce its debt ratio in 2007.
