Belgian postal company Bpost is trying to buy PostNL

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Trading in Dutch postal company PostNL and Belgium’s Bpost was halted on Friday following reports the Belgian company had made a bid for its Dutch peer.

According to Belgian paper De Tijd, Bpost made its first offer for PostNL in March and has raised the bid twice since then. That offer is now being studied by PostNL’s board, the paper said.

Although presented as a merger of equals, Bpost is currently valued at around €4.8bn, or almost three times PostNL.

Bpost is majority owned by the Belgian state. PostNL booked turnover of almost €3.5bn last year and has operations in 13 countries worldwide. Bpost booked turnover of €2.4bn in 2015.

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Bpost Ends Negotiations for Takeover of Netherlands’ PostNL

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Announcement comes after speculation that deal was imminent
Bpost spokesman says decision won’t affect company’s goals

Belgian postal company Bpost SA said it failed to reach an agreement to buy PostNL NV of the Netherlands in a surprise announcement following speculation of an imminent merger.

PostNL shares were halted Friday following a report in Belgian newspaper Le Soir that Bpost was interested in buying its Dutch competitor. The stock had gained 5.4 percent to 3.86 euros before Dutch financial-markets regulator AFM ordered a stop to trading early in the afternoon. Local press signaled a deal was due to be announced early on Monday.

“Negotiations have ended without an agreement,” Baudouin de Hepcee, a Bpost spokesman, said by telephone on Sunday. “We came to the conclusion over the weekend that we couldn’t come to an agreement on certain elements of the transaction and decided to stop the talks.”

De Hepcee declined to elaborate while saying the failed takeover attempt won’t affect Bpost’s goals.

Bpost has been expanding beyond mail delivery as it deals with declining demand for letter deliveries. Domestic mail volume will drop 5 percent to 6 percent this year, the company forecast in March. Bpost agreed in February to buy the Belgian operations of Lagardere SCA’s travel retail business. The Hague-based PostNL reported an 11 percent plunge in addressed-mail volume for last year and is forecasting further contractions of 7 percent to 9 percent through 2017.

Trading Halted

Bpost rose 0.6 percent to 24.33 euros before trading was halted midday Friday in Brussels pending a statement, giving the company a market value of about 4.9 billion euros. The Belgian state owns 51 percent of Bpost’s shares, according to the company’s website. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday denied a suggestion that the government intends to sell part of its holding.
PostNL was formerly the Netherlands’ government-owned mail carrier. The company spun off package-delivery service TNT Express NV in 2011. FedEx Corp. acquired TNT on May 25 for 4.4 billion euros.