Deutsche Post, Recognize It?

It was Germany's federal post office. But now it's so much more.

I follow this with more interest than most because I've done some work for DHL over the last 5 years, and DHL was loosely affiliated with Deutsche Post until 2 years ago when it became the yellow and red UPS and FedEx competitor whose trucks you now regularly see. (and fully owned by Deutsche Post)

Deutsche Post seeks to purchase Exel, a UK-based company that would (according to the Thursday September 15 print edition of the Wall Street Journal) "double the size of Deutsche Post's logistics operation." Whoa.

Even more interesting, the purchase is rumored to be largely completed in cash. "Deutsche Post, in which the German government still owns 45%, would likely finance the purchase with a combination of cash and stock. The company has no debt, and has liquid assets of more than [pound symbol I'm too lazy took look up the ASCII for]4 billion." Evidently the boys in brown are also at least interested in the bidding, as UPS is, according to this same article, "eager to beef up its international presence."

Whoa. Just whoa. Consider the huge losses DHL has incurred in branding itself - 1.2 billion - and the linked article's out of date. And then figure that its parent company has no debt. Yeah, I'll bet brown has paled to tan, if not publicly. This company's serious.

hln

Posted by hln at September 18, 2005 01:49 PM | General News | TrackBack