German Post Office Bids for Danzas

PARIS — The state-owned German post office, Deutsche Post AG, has launched a $1.1 billion bid to acquire Danzas, the Swiss-based international transport and logistics company. The Danzas board of directors met Dec. 10 and recommended that shareholders accept the offer, which will begin officially in mid-January.

If successful, the acquisition will be one of the largest ever in the road transport industry, and would transform Europe’s largest post office into a global transport and logistics company. With more than 260,000 employees in 40 countries, the DP-Danzas combination would be among the world’s largest road freight transportation companies.

Last year, DP had revenue of $16.8 billion. Danzas, which DP says will become “the logistics pillar of Deutsche Post,” had revenue $5.2 billion and gross profits of $513 million.

The bid for Danzas is the latest and largest in a string of equity investments made this year by the German post office, which is slated to be privatized in 2000.

In March, DP bought a 22.5% stake — later increased to 25% — in international express documents and parcels company DHL for an undisclosed sum. In November, DP paid $368 million for a 50% stake in one of Britain’s leading express parcels companies, Securicor Omega Distribution. Only a week before announcing the Danzas bid, DP said it purchased French parcels distribution company Ducros.

By one estimate, the German post office will have acquired nearly $2 billion in transportation assets within one year if the Danzas bid is successful. That buying spree has outraged at least one of DP’s private competitors, United Parcel Service Europe, which intends to challenge Deutsche Post.

“This continuing abuse of profits made within the German post office’s monopoly area . . . should not be allowed to continue,” said Randy Pulito, president of UPS Europe. “Nor should the Deutsche Post — with the highest stamp prices in Europe — be able to continually abuse monopoly profits for acquisitions.”

For the full story, see the Dec. 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.