La Poste today revealed a 17.7 per cent slump in net profits for 2014 as growth areas such asexpress parcels and financial services failed to compensate for the declining mail business but
promised a ‘rebound’ this year with higher operating profits.In 2014, the French postal group increased its consolidated revenues by 2.1 per cent to€22,163 million, although this was only a 0.9 per cent rise on a like-for-like basis. Severalacquisitions by GeoPost and La Banque Postale boosted the overall revenues.
However, the group’s operating profit dropped by 7.6 per cent to €719 million, which was a9.9 per cent fall on a like-for-like basis, pushing the operating margin down to 3.2 per cent from3.6 per cent in 2013. Net profits declined by 17.7 per cent to €513 million (-20.5 per cent on alike-for-like basis).
“Growth areas compensated for letters which was very positive for the (revenue) growth ofour group,” CEO Philippe Wahl told journalists, including CEP-Research, at a press conference inParis. “But the profits of the growth areas do not yet compensate for the drop in letters profits.”He emphasised that he expected operating profits to increase this year. “2015 will be the year ofthe rebound,” he declared.
In 2014, the largest division ‘Services – Mail – Parcels’ suffered a 23.2 per cent fall inoperating profits to €419 million while its revenues declined by 1.8 per cent to €11,395 million.Addressed mail volumes declined by 5.8 per cent, wiping out the positive effects of a 3 per centprice increase in January 2014. Coliposte, the B2C parcel unit, had slightly higher revenues of€1.6 billion and a slight drop in volumes due to the decline of traditional mail-order customersbut improved operating profits by 8.2 per cent thanks to cost reductions.
In contrast, GeoPost grew strongly with a 13.3 per cent increase in revenues to €4,921million while volumes increased by 10.7 per cent to 865 million parcels, including double-digitgrowth in the UK ( 19 per cent), Spain ( 14 per cent) and France ( 11 per cent). B2C parcels grewby 16 per cent to reach 30 per cent of total volumes in 2014, while B2B parcels achieved 6 per centgrowth and accounted for 70 per cent of volumes. Organic revenue growth came to 8.4 per cent,including a slight drop in average prices. Various acquisitions, including Tigers and Seurfranchisees in 2013 and Siodemka, Worldnet and more Seur franchises last year, brought in €210worth of additional revenues.
GeoPost, which generated 80 per cent of its revenues outside France, improved its underlyingoperating profit by 4.2 per cent to €329 million. However, the reported figure dropped to €284million due to a €45 million provision connected to a French competition authority investigationinto alleged anti-competitive activities by various parcel companies before 2010. The divisioninvested €226 million in its logistics network and IT last year.
La Banque Postale was once again a vital profit contributor with operating profits up by 16per cent to €842 million while its revenues grew by 1.8 per cent to €5,673 million. The new ‘Digital’ division, covering various external and internal products and services, made an operatingloss of €62 million on revenues of €539 million.
