Despite a highly competitive environment, POST Luxembourg Group managed to increase its turnover in 2014 by 2.1% (€14.1 million), rising to €691.5 million, as communicated at a press conference on Monday at which Claude Strasser, Director General, and Serge Allegrezza, chairman, spoke.

This signifies a return to growth after two years of stagnation marked by the structural decline of the traditional business of postal distribution and fixed line telephony, a phenomenon that continued or even accelerated in 2014. By diversifying its activities, particularly in the field of ICT, the Group was able to counter this drop and show overall growth in turnover.

POST Telecom SA alone contributed to the increase in the amount of €21.2 million (+ 6.1%). This increase is due to the success of the mobile offer SCOUBIDO introduced in October 2014, Internet broadband LuxFibre, and also the rise of PostTV Cloud and Managed Services services, and continues on a nice progression. Two large projects, including the project Renita, the new communication network of law enforcement and emergency services of the State, have positively impacted sales.

The turnover of the parent company experienced a significant decrease of €20.7 million mainly due to lower mobile termination rates (MTR-Mobile Termination Rates) and a new adaptation of roaming costs from 1 July 2014.

The deficit at POST Courier amounts to some €3 million. The parcel market has taken full advantage of e-commerce success, continuing to grow significantly (+ 21% in volume in 2014). Nevertheless, the share of parcels in the overall turnover of POST Courier is too weak to reverse the general downward trend of this business.

Despite a 9.7% increase in deposits on accounts in 2014, the turnover of POST Finance fell slightly compared to the previous year. This decline is attributable to historically low interest rates on the financial markets.

During the fiscal year 2014, all subsidiaries recorded an increase in turnover, with the sole exception of Infomail SA, with the most pronounced at the subsidiary level being at VBS SA and EBRC SA. Besides increases POST Luxembourg Group has expanded by a 60% stake in the capital of InTech SA and investment, through POST Capital SA, in GlobalSkyPark GmbH and Join Experience SA (acquired at 50% in 2013).

Despite the positive development of sales, EBITDA at the POST group recorded a decline of 1.8 million.

Among the operating expenses, which increased by 2.5% overall, staff costs show an increase of 7.9% (or €20.8 million). This increase is related to an increase in staff, the company employees at InTech SA, a significant increase in provisions for unused leave and ultimately the cost of engaging employees under private status to the new collective agreement signed in October 2013. POST Group continues to position itself as one of the largest employers in the country with 4,096 staff employed on average in 2014 (+ 3.9%).

The costs of direct purchases show a decline of €8.2 million. This decrease in expenses was primarily due to decreases in expenses of postal terminals between operators and the regression in termination rates and roaming tariffs. Other external expenses increased slightly.

EBITDA remains constant. EBIT of POST Group recorded a decline of €7.1 million compared to 2013, which was mainly due to increased depreciation. This is the logical consequence of the very high level of the past years include investments for the deployment of optical fibre, data centre construction and modernisation of major computer systems.

The drop is even more important in the profit before tax which is down €14.8 million, mainly because of exceptional charges (losses written down for the demolition of old buildings and CFM provisions for pending litigation) in excess of €7.5 million in extraordinary income.

Net income after taxes amounted to €41.3 million against €60.1 million in 2013.

Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Serge Allegrezza, chairman; Claude Strasser, Director General