French postal operator La Poste posted a double-digit decline in profits impacted by the Greekdebt crisis while its turnover grew slightly as all its business units reported growth in 2011,
especially with its parcel unit showing a strong volume increase.In its full year results for 2011 published yesterday, it reported a decline in its operatingprofit of 14.5% to €670 million, down from €784 million in 2010, due to the €241 million write-downof Greek bonds held by the postal group in the European banking bailout of the Greek economy. Netprofit also fell by 13.1% to €478 million while the adjusted net profit rose 23% to €661 million.The company’s turnover grew 1.9% to €21.34 billion and 1.2% in comparable terms, due to a solidperformance of all its units, La Poste explained.
La Poste CEO Jean-Paul Bailly thanked all postal workers for their daily commitment and theirstrong involvement in customer service and the group’s modernisation, announcing a profitparticipation pay-out totalling €58.6 million, equal to €242 per employee.
La Poste’ mail division recorded a turnover increase of 0.3% to €11.57 billion remaining stablein comparable terms. The mail volume decline slowed down a bit with a drop of 3% last year comparedto -3.3% in 2010. The fall in mail volumes was compensated by the price increases coming intoeffect in July 2011 and the development of new value-added services, including the company’s ‘greenletter’ and the online mail service Digiposte.
In the express and parcel sector, La Poste’s revenues increased by 7.4% to €5.2 billion, withthe operating profit rising 13% to 387 million. GeoPost, the express parcel arm of La Posteoperating in France and Europe, recorded a turnover increase of 6.6% in comparable terms to €3.7billion with 6.8% growth in parcel volumes in all countries with the exception of Southern Europeimpacted by the economic crisis.
The separate French domestic parcels business ColiPoste, which has a focus on B2C and C2Cactivities in France, experienced a 5.5% growth in turnover, in comparable terms, to €1.53billion.
External operations contributing to La Poste’s express and parcel growth included theacquisition of the courier-express company Iloxx in Germany and the increased shares in DPD Laserin South Africa, Seur (Spain) and Lenton (Hong Kong).
The company invested a total of €1.33 billion in 2011, compared to €1.1 billion in 2010. In theindustrial and commercial sectors, the investments were mainly destined for the increase incapacity of its express operations in Europe and post office modernisation.
The company generated addition €2.45 billion from its retail services in 2011, including thegrowing banking activities and the start of its own mobile network launched in May last year.
Last year was marked by the implementation of the €2.7 billion capital increase in La Poste,signed by French state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) as part of La Poste’s supervisory boardwith the first contribution of €1.05 billion made on 6 April 2011.
Looking ahead, La Poste expects the stabilisation of its turnover in a rather uncertainenvironment, with the development of each of its units which is supported by a dynamic innovationpolicy and an operational performance targeted at cost reduction. In addition, the company aims tocontinue improving its service quality and the execution of public tasks.
La Poste stressed that the capital increase will allow it to further improve its financialresults and strengthen its development capacity.
