Sales were maintained compared to the previous year, but the operating result fell by over 50 percent – mainly due to Corona and the expansion of bank99.
The Austrian Post AG was able to keep sales in the first half of 2020 compared to the previous year, but the result collapsed dramatically, as the company announced on Friday morning – due to the effects of the corona pandemic, but also the expansion of bank99.
At EUR 981.9 million, sales remained stable compared to the same period in the previous year (+0.1 percent), but the Group’s operating profit (EBIT) decreased by 55.2 percent to EUR 48.2 million. The profit halved to EUR 39.1 million (-50.7 percent). Earnings per share fell from EUR 1.17 to EUR 0.66.
Particularly bad: the second quarter of 2020
The second quarter of 2020, in particular, had the greatest negative effect of the past ten years due to the lockdown regulations and economic standstills in some industries, the company announcement. “In spite of significantly more difficult general conditions, the Austrian succeeded Post – thanks to the tireless efforts of all employees – to ensure the nationwide supply of letter, parcel and branch services, even if various supply obligations could not be met to cover costs or additional costs resulted from regulations and crisis measures. “
The group’s EBIT was negatively impacted by negative Covid-19 effects of approx. 45 million euros – due to extraordinary health and logistics costs (approx. 20 million euros) as well as the negative impact on earnings from lower sales (approx. 25 million euros). The reduced sales in the mail and advertising business had a strong impact due to the high fixed cost intensity of this business.
The parcel business, on the other hand, benefited from strong impulses in online trading. In addition, additional costs have been recorded in recent months to cope with the quantities of up to plus 50 percent in some weeks, the company said. The EBIT of the logistics business therefore decreased by 27.4 percent in the first half of the year to EUR 76.9 million.
Bank99 costs have an impact
The costs for the new bank99, which has been on the market since April, also had a negative impact. The Branch & Bank division made a negative contribution to earnings of EUR 28.7 million due to the build-up costs of bank99 and Covid-19. So far bank99 has over 42,000 customers. goal of Post is to expand this financial services business in the next quarters with new products and to generate positive earnings contributions from 2023.
The Austrian PostGroup had an average of 20,443 full-time employees in the first six months of 2020, 1.4 percent more than in the same period in the previous year.
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