La Poste’s supervisory board has officially approved a capital increase of €2.7 billion whichwill result in state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) taking a 26% stake in the French postal
operator.The board authorised La Poste CEO Jean-Paul Bailly to sign the relevant contract for thetransaction and a special General Assembly will be convened to complete the transaction.
The capital increase is part of the agreement between the French state-owned bank Caisse desDépôts (CDC) and the French government for a joint investment of €2.7 billion in La Poste that wasfinalised in October last year. It gives the French postal group more funds for modernisation andexpansion in view of the liberalised postal market.
Under plans agreed over the last two years, the French government has committed itself tocontributing €1.2 billion to the capital increase while the CDC contributes a further €1.5 billionin exchange for a 26% equity holding. This agreement represents the latest stage in therestructuring of La Poste, which became a public limited company in March 2010. Its previous statusas a public organisation (‘établissement public industriel et commercial’) legally prevented such acapital increase.
The technical details have been included in La Poste’s plan “Ambition 2015” adopted by thesupervisory board on April 15, 2010 to arrange the payment according to the financial investmentneeds of La Poste.
The capital increase will take place in three stages this year and next year with €1,050 millionper year and in 2013 with the remaining €600 million, La Poste said in a statement.
The General Assembly will also approve CDC’s admission to La Poste’s supervisory board followingthe completion of the capital increase.
After the announcement in 2008 of the La Poste restructuring plan, the postal operator facedstrong opposition from the unions with protests and strikes as they feared privatisation. In July2008, La Poste signed a public service contract with the French government covering 2008-2012confirming the company’s commitment towards four basic service areas and preparing it for totalpostal liberalisation in 2011. The contract included commitments to mail deliveries six days a weekand mail delivery quality targets, the maintenance of 17,000 postal service points across France,and public access to banking services. It was seen as an effort to calm postal unions.
In January 2010, French MPs finally approved the new postal law transforming La Poste into alimited company as of March 1 and then opening up the domestic mail market to competition inJanuary 2011. The vote in the National Assembly was the final stage in the passage of the postallaw through the French Parliament over the previous few months.
