Belgian postal operator bpost dropped into the red in 2011 because of a €291 million state aidrepayment but improved its underlying results despite lower volumes.
The company saw its 2010 operating profit of €322.4 million slump to a €69.2 million loss lastyear, while net profit of €209.6 million in 2010 turned into a net loss of €57.4 million. The keyfactor was provision for the exceptional one-off reimbursement of €291 million to the Belgian Statefollowing a European Commission ruling last year.
But underlying results, excluding this provision and other non-recurring costs and revenues,showed a clear improvement. Operating profit (EBIT) increased by 12.3% to €358.6 million while netprofit was 9.4% higher at €227.1 million. Bpost’s turnover rose by 2% in 2011 to €2,365 million,and the underlying operating profit margin improved to 15.2% from the previous year’s 13.8%.
Positive factors, which included ongoing cost management, successful new products, the positivedevelopment of foreign subsidiaries and the effects of the price increase in early 2011, outweigheda 2% fall in addressed mail volumes, bpost said.
The company said that the figures, which were approved by the board of directors yesterday andwill be presented to a shareholders’ meeing on June 27, showed it had achieved its targets in 2011in spite of the worsening economic situation, and that it had maintained its financial andoperational stability.
“We should look back on our performance in 2011 with satisfaction,” said CEO Johnny Thijs. “Despite the first signs of the economic crisis, we have managed to sustain the increase inoperating results we achieved in the previous years. The European Commission’s decision on thereimbursement to the Belgian State was an unpleasant surprise that has impacted our net result, butonly in 2011.”
Looking ahead to 2012, Thijs warned that volumes in the first quarter of 2012 fell sharper thanin previous years due to the crisis and competition from electronic communication. He also pointedout that the European Commission has yet to announce its decision on the Fifth Management Contract(2011-2015), which is of great importance to the company.
“In the first quarter of this year we saw a 3% decrease in addressed mail volumes, significantlymore than in 2011 (2%) and 2010 (1%). We will have to see whether this trend continues, but we willkeep working on strict cost controlling measures and the full execution of our change programmes,”Thijs said. “This year we also hope to receive a decision from the European Commission in relationto the Fifth Management Contract between bpost and the Belgian State (2011-2015). This contract,which among others, determines the services of General Economic Interest and the compensationthereof by the State, is of great importance to bpost.”
