Posten Norden launched full speed ahead and with a focus on costs

Message from the CEO
History was made when Posten AB and Post Danmark A/S merged to form the joint Posten Norden group on June 24th of this year. In order to rapidly achieve economies of scale, capture synergies and attain uniformity in the prevailing economic situation, we have initiated an intensive effort to join the businesses and to formulate a joint scorecard and long-term strategy. We share a distinct goal: Posten Norden will be the most competitive operator providing communications and logistics solutions to, from and within the Nordic region.

Since the autumn of 2008, we've witnessed a global crisis that has impacted most industries and markets. Posten Norden's business has been affected, for instance, by the industrial sector's slumping demand for logistics services and the stepped-up transition to electronic communication within the financial sector. It is also evident that the distressed market situation has so far resulted in plummeting demand and a sharp decline in profitability for operators within our industry.

Posten Norden's net sales decreased by 8%, excluding currency changes, during January-September as compared with the corresponding period (pro forma) last year. Operating earnings totalled SEK 969m, a significant decline compared to the same period last year. The group's costs have been brought down through vigorous measures on the cost side, albeit not to a sufficient extent to offset the entire drop-off in earnings. Net financial items for the period were positively impacted by a capital gain of SEK 2,002m arising from the divestiture by Post Danmark A/S of its share in Belgian Post last July.

I am pleased to note that the merger process is going forward extremely efficiently and with a full head of steam. The EU review and our fulfillment of the ensuing obligations were performed in an unusually short period of time. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our employees, we have very quickly come a long way in our work to merge into a joint group without losing focus on our day-to-day business. This has enabled us to present a reasonably good result in our first external report, given the circumstances. But there is undoubtedly hard work ahead. Our newly trained management teams are therefore pursuing concentrated efforts to improve and enhance Posten Norden's existing and future position. This bodes well for our future.

The interim report can be downloaded from the link below

The group was formally established on 24 June 2009 and consolidated on 1 July 2009. All comparative information and all information for the period January - September are pro forma. Pro forma information is not audited.