Swiss Post saw its profits decline by 17 per cent in the first half of 2012 as it gears up tobecome a state-owned public limited company next year under a new postal law.
Currently structured as a ‘public institution’, Swiss Post will restructure into a PLC withthree subsidiaries, Post CH Ltd, covering its mail and parcel businesses in Switzerland,PostFinance Ltd, the financial services business, and PostBus, the regional public transportoperator.
In the first half of 2012, Swiss Post’s net profits dropped 17 per cent to CHF 459 million.Operating profits declined to CHF 448 million from CHF 550 million in the first half of last year,while turnover was flat at CHF 4.3 billion. The operating margin fell back to 10 per cent from 12.8per cent.
Swiss Post said today that the profit figure was “still strong within the group’s objectives”given the challenging environment for its activities. The fall was due to a combination of lowinterest rates on the financial markets, the resulting increase in employee benefit expenses andreduced income from the disposal of property, it commented.
All four of its markets registered positive results, although their contribution variedsignificantly.
The ‘Communication’ division, covering the mail business, post offices and added-valueservices, increased revenues to CHF 2.42 billion from CHF 2.37 billion but the operating profitdropped to CHF 61 million from CHF 75 million. This fall was primarily due to higher employeebenefit expenses, which had a negative effect on PostMail’s results.
The Swiss postal business made an operating profit of CHF 112 million compared to CHF 142million the previous year. The volume of addressed letters fell by 1.8 per cent but the volume ofunaddressed mail increased by 47 per cent as a result of the complete takeover of the DMC Group.The figures exclude Swiss Post International which has been merged into Asendia, the new jointventure with France’s La Poste.
The Post Offices network reduced its losses to CHF 53 million on revenues of CHF 828 millionthanks to ongoing cost savings as over-the-counter postal business volumes continued to fall. SwissPost Solutions had a small operating profit of CHF 2 million on flat revenues of CHF 276 million.
PostLogistics’ operating profit dropped slightly to CHF 73 million, largely due to highercosts for dispatch services and investments in new IT systems. The number of parcels transportedincreased by 4.4 per cent, driven by the partial recovery of import parcel processing from Germanyand increased Internet business. Its revenues rose to CHF 761 million from CHF 737 million in theprevious half-year.
PostFinance remained the group’s main profit contributor with operating profits of CHF 295million, although this was a 10.6 per cent fall from the previous year’s CHF 330 million profit. Inthe passenger transport market, PostBus had stable profits of CHF 18 million on turnover of CHF 377million.
Looking ahead, Swiss Post said it expects to record a solid result for 2012 as a whole but isunlikely to match the 2011 figure of CHF 904 million in net profits.
Meanwhile, Swiss Post today also issued more details about its planned reorganisation nextyear once new postal legislation is passed. The new structure will go into operation from 1 January2013 while the legislation is expected to be approved retroactively in the second quarter of theyear.
PostMail, PostLogistics, Post Offices & Sales and Swiss Post Solutions, will become unitsof Post CH Ltd while PostFinance will become a separate company to meet the requirements of Swissfinancial markets regulations and will gain a banking licence.
Swiss Post said that as a state-owned PLC, the group would gain entrepreneurial freedom toimprove its competitiveness while continuing to provide basic services in a viable manner andremaining a socially responsible employer.
