Brazilian postal operator Correios is set to diversify into logistics and financial services andlaunch international activities under a new legal set-up.
The Brazilian government has approved a new legal statue for Empresa Brasileira de Correios eTelegrafos (ECT, more generally known as Correios), which governs the business activities that thestate-owned organisation is permitted to conduct. The state-owned company is already an importantdomestic express and parcels delivery operator alongside its core mail activities.
Under the new statute, Correios will be able to diversify its services, create new subsidiariesand provide more integrated logistics services. It will also be able to establish internationalpartnerships with other players and set up subsidiaries abroad. Moreover, it is allowed to set upits own retail bank and could move into new business areas such as mobile phone services.
To improve transparency, the organisation will have to publish independently-audited annualaccounts in future. An employee representative will be appointed to the company’s Board ofDirectors, the board chairman will be appointed by the Minister of Communications and the duties ofthe Board of Directors and Executive Directors will be better defined.
Correios welcomed the new statue as the most important development since its creation in 1969and said it would strengthen its position as a public company. “With the changes, the expectationis that ECT will be better prepared to guarantee, with transparency, the advancement of universalpostal services, access to basic postal services and to improve services to citizens and Braziliancompanies in growing their business,” Correios stated.
Leading the new strategy will be Wagner Pinheiro who was named head of Correios earlier thisyear by president Dilma Rousseff following widespread public criticism of the postal operator’sservice quality.
Pinheiro told Brazilian media in interviews earlier this month that he aimed to “rescue thecompany’s image”, restructure management and then start to expand business activities. Correioscould become a minority shareholder in an air cargo airline to secure transportation capacity andmight join a consortium for a planned Rio-Sao Paulo high-speed ‘bullet train’ that could carrymail, he revealed.
But Correios has played down reports it might invest up to R$1 billion (€0.4 billion) in newplanes from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. “There is still no decision by the company on thepurchase of airplanes, nor on the amount to be invested or the supplier,” it said. Correios iscontinuing to contract capacity for night-time mail and freight transportation, it added.
In 2010, Correios increased revenues by 10.5% to R$12.7 billion (€5.6 billion) and improved itsprofit to R$827 million (€363 million) from just R$118 million the year before. Overall volumesrose 6.8% last year, with parcels up by 4.7% to 6.2 billion items, according to Brazilianmedia.
