FedEx is not interested in buying some TNT businesses so that UPS can gain EU approval for itsplanned €5.16 billion acquisition of the Dutch express company, according to an unconfirmed media
report today.The Financial Times reported that FedEx had “rebuffed informal approaches” from UPS to acquiresome TNT assets and would not engage in serious talks without these covering “a bigger slice of theTNT business”.
UPS and TNT Express have officially proposed disposing of some TNT businesses to overcome theEuropean Commission’s concerns about the impact of their merger on competition in the Europeanexpress market.
FedEx declined to comment on the report. “As a matter of company policy, we do not comment oncorporate development matters nor those of our competitors,” a FedEx spokesperson toldCEP-Research. UPS and TNT are also not commenting on the issue.
According to the FT, this now leaves DPD, the subsidiary of France’s La Poste, as the onlypotential buyer of TNT business activities. But the European Commission wants assurances that DPDwould be a credible express delivery competitor if it had to use airlift capacity of othercompanies, including UPS (and TNT) in future.
The European Commission is due to decide by February 5 whether to approve the UPS-TNT mergerunder certain conditions or whether to officially block it.
