Anton Wais, the long-serving CEO of Austrian Post, today resigned on health grounds against thebackground of a renewed dispute over post office closures.
Austrian Post announced that Wais has resigned his position as Chairman of the ManagementBoard and Chief Executive Officer for health reasons effective March 31, 2009. Deputy chairman andCFO Rudolf Jettmar will take over his responsibilities temporarily while a new CEO is being sought.
Wais was appointed Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of AustrianPost on July 1, 1999. He oversaw the legal independence of Austrian Post in 1999, its subsequentrestructuring, the successful IPO in 2006 and its strategic focus on international expansion.
“After close to ten extremely intensive years at Austrian Post, I have come to this decisionafter careful consideration. Unfortunately, this step is absolutely necessary due to the state ofmy health,” Wais said. “I look back at the past decade with pride. Today Austrian Post is aprofitable company. Its high dividends and good operating results confirm the strategy adopted in1999. This good positioning will contribute to the company’s ability to conquer future challengesand successfully move ahead into the fully liberalised letter mail market.”
Supervisory board chairman Peter Michaelis commented: “I can only express my heartfelt thanksto Mr. Wais for his service to the company and the successful spirit of cooperation in past years.Under his leadership, Austrian Post succeeded in its transformation into a modern service provider.Not the least of the achievements of Anton Wais and his team was deeply embedding this paradigmchange in the company in the course of the Initial Public Offering in 2006. The excellentdevelopment of the Post share, despite all the turbulences on international financial and capitalmarkets, confirms the solid business model of Austrian Post.”
Deputy Chairman and CFO Rudolf Jettmar added: “All the measures for further improving theeconomic position of the company and guaranteeing its stability and value creation are based on thecollective decisions of the entire board. This successful path will be continued. The board ofAustrian Post regrets the decision of Anton Wais and wishes him all the best for a fast recovery.”
Meanwhile, a dispute has broken out in Austria over the postal operator’s plans to close 300of its 1,500 post offices and replace them with 450 independent Post.Partner agencies during 2009.Austrian Post said the 300 post offices were small and loss-making, and it would seek 150additional Post.Partner agencies to expand the overall network to 1,650 retail outlets. Theannouncement, which comes several months after a ‘postal summit’, was criticised by localpoliticians and unions, however.
“Our aim is to extend and secure for the long term the nationwide coverage of postal servicesin Austria. We will achieve this by replacing 300 small post offices that have been loss-making foryears with 450 modern Post.Partner outlets,” explained Herbert Götz, head of the post officenetwork.
