Newly-listed Poste Italiane has unveiled higher profits for January – September 2015 driven by strong results from its financial and insurance businesses after successfully completing its IPO at the end of October.
The Italian government sold a 40% stake in the company for €6.75 per share, raising up to €3.4 billion that will be used to reduce the country’s debt. The postal group was valued at just over €8.8 billion as part of the flotation.
Poste Italiane announced yesterday that it increased nine-month total revenues by 6% to €23.92 billion and operating profits improved by 26.9% to €930 million, while net profits soared by 86.8% to €622 million.
The ‘Commercial & Postal Services’ division recorded a 6.5% drop in external revenues to €2,836 million in the nine-month period. A slower 10% decline in mail volumes was partly compensated by tariff increases last December. The parcels business increased volumes by 10% to 60 million during the period, driven by the development of e-commerce in Italy. In this sector, Poste Italiane offers an extensive logistical network and integrated secure payment system to customers.
But the division’s operating losses more than doubled to €137 million compared to a loss of €66 million in the first nine months of 2014 due to the decline in revenues. This was partly mitigated by actions to contain costs.
The Financial Services division (BancoPosta) had stable revenues of €3.9 billion while operating profits went up strongly by 44% to €687 million thanks to lower operating costs. The Insurances Services division (PosteVita) increased its external revenues by 10% to €16.3 billion due to a rise in premium payments while its operating profits were 13.2% higher at €351 million.
Francesco Caio, CEO, commented: “This robust set of results demonstrates that our business transformation plan is progressing well, and gives a strong platform for our full year results. Two factors are expected to impact on full year profitability in the final quarter: first, in line with the previous year, we will accrue costs for transformation activities that will be implemented in 2016; secondly, given the active management of our government bond portfolio, profits could be lower than those of previous quarters. With this in mind, and based on current operating performance, we foresee a distinct improvement in 2015 on 2014.”
