Austrian Post increased its operating profits in the first quarter of 2011 thanks to solid parcelsand logistics growth and stable overall mail business, sparking a share price recovery after
yesterday’s sharp drop.The privatised postal group increased its operating profit by 7.6 per cent to €48.8 millionin the first quarter on revenues of €571.3 million, a 1.6 per cent rise. Net profits were 11.8 percent higher at €37.4 million.
Investors welcomed the results, driving the share up 4.56 per cent by mid-afternoon. Thestock had slumped by 10.90 per cent yesterday ahead of the Q1 results.
“As originally intended, we succeeded in more than compensating for the volume decline inaddressed letter mail by generating growth in direct mail and parcels,” commented CEO Georg Pölzl.
The Mail Division maintained stable profits with a slight EBIT rise of 0.4 per cent to €65.1million. Its revenue only fell by 0.2 per cent to €324.2 million on a comparable basis. The trendtowards electronic substitution of letters, the decrease in high value mail items and the reducedweight of mail items being posted continued, resulting in a 4 per cent letter volume fall. But thedecline was offset by the extraordinarily positive development of direct mail items, driven bystrong economic development.
The Parcel and Logistics division improved its operating profit by 25 per cent to €5.2million in the first quarter of 2011. Revenues climbed 6.4 per cent to €208.5 million. Growth wasdriven by higher parcel volumes although price pressure continued in almost all markets. Thepremium parcel product segment (parcel delivery within 24 hours) generated a revenue increase of6.2 per cent to €162.7 million. The standard parcels product segment, focusing mostly on B2Cdeliveries in Austria, increased revenue by 1.3 per cent to €40.7 million.
The German subsidiary trans-o-flex, which accounts for approximately three quarters ofpremium parcel revenue, increased revenues by winning new customers. Premium parcel revenue alsoincreased in Belgium and the Netherlands, where the implementation of restructuring measures wasintensified. The trans-o-flex group achieved overall revenue growth of 6 per cent in the firstquarter.
Overall revenues in Austria were up by 3 per cent, with a 4.6 per cent rise in premiumparcels and a 2 per cent increase for standard parcels. The parcel subsidiaries in south-eastEurope generated a 7.9 per cent revenue increase.
In contrast, the Branch Network Division saw its operating loss double to €4.2 million onrevenues of €38.4 million. Changes are ongoing, notably the continuing expansion to a total of1,866 postal service points, including 1,164 third-party operated postal partner offices. Thedeclared objective is to exploit this transformation as the basis for sustainably improvingdivisional earnings in 2011 compared to the previous year.
Austrian Post confirmed its outlook for 2011 as a whole. The company aims to generate revenuegrowth of 1-2 per cent and to improve profitability to the upper end of the target EBITDA marginrange of between 10 per cent and 12 per cent. For 2011, Austrian Post anticipates that the volumeof addressed letter mail in Austria will also decrease by 3-5 per cent p.a., reflectinginternational trends. Austrian Post expects further volume growth in the Parcel and LogisticsDivision in 2011, driven by the positive overall economic development. However, efficiencyenhancement and margin improvement will remain the division’s top priorities.
