Royal Mail UKPIL will make loss due to Covid-19; divi suspended

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 27 Mar 2020, 10:06

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(Sharecast News) - Royal Mail warned on Friday that its parcels, international and letters business (UKPIL) was set to make a loss while profitability at its European business, GLS, will be "significantly reduced" due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The company still expects to report FY2019-20 group adjusted operating profit before IFRS 16 of ?300m to ?340m. However, it said that in light of "significant uncertainty" going forward, the UKPIL business is expected to be "materially" loss-making in FY2020-21 and GLS profitability significantly reduced.

To preserve cash, it plans not to propose a final dividend. In addition, the planned transformation of the UKPIL business is now expected to take even longer to achieve, it said.

Royal Mail also suspended guidance for 2020-21 and beyond.

The company said that in the last two weeks, advertising mail in particular has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, as marketing campaigns have been delayed or cancelled, especially in the travel sector. Business mail volumes have been resilient to date and broadly in line with previous expectations, it said, supported by recent customer mailings.

"We anticipate that recent restrictions on individuals and businesses will have a negative impact on unsorted and stamped mail, although we are unable to quantify it at this stage," it said. "Whilst it is difficult to accurately predict how letter volumes will evolve over the coming weeks we do expect downward pressure to continue."

Chief executive officer Rico Back said: "We are putting the health and wellbeing of colleagues and customers first. At the same time, we are delivering the parcels and letters that are a lifeline for those who cannot leave their homes.

"We are entering a period of significant uncertainty in a good financial position. We have a strong balance sheet. We have substantial levels of liquidity and low levels of debt. We are taking immediate steps to further reduce our costs and protect our cash flow."

Yamr1 · Post by **Yamr1** » 27 Mar 2020, 14:11

Yawn yawn what about company's not even trading and paying staff ...

Royalmail doom and gloom making money but still never happy could be worse if we weren't even opened and closed for 4 to 12 weeks

scoobydo79 · Post by **scoobydo79** » 27 Mar 2020, 14:57

How about as a gesture of good will Rico and the other top guys in the company give their shares that they got so cheap back to the company?

Post by **wacko74** » 27 Mar 2020, 16:01

Not trying to defend any of the fatcats at the head of RM but I really don't see why RM shouldn't be entitled to financial assistance from the government with the increased costs of sick leave, extra van hire etc... seeing as the government decided we are a ''key industry'' and required to keep operating throughout this.

The government seems to be able to find money to help just about every other section of society in this crisis.

Post by **postareale** » 27 Mar 2020, 18:37

Shares price performance since Rico Back became CEO June 1, 2018.png

. Investor confidence? Nil!

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 27 Mar 2020, 19:07

matthew68 · Post by **matthew68** » 27 Mar 2020, 19:15

Supermarket workers given a pay rise during the crisis and extra discounts on food and a huge thank you from there bosses at this difficult time. We are told to walk to our start of delivery and back which could be another 4 miles a day and told you can’t cut off because traffic is down and it could be a disciplinary if you bring mail back! You couldn’t make it up, the managers are a genuine disgrace with there disregard to your safety and selfishness, it’s a shame because the job is not enjoyable at the. Moment and it hasn’t for a while, I get the feeling they are trying to hope long termers leave and just bring in youngsters who know no different

Post by **wacko74** » 28 Mar 2020, 05:53

matthew68 wrote:Supermarket workers given a pay rise during the crisis and extra discounts on food and a huge thank you from there bosses at this difficult time. We are told to walk to our start of delivery and back which could be another 4 miles a day and told you can’t cut off because traffic is down and it could be a disciplinary if you bring mail back! You couldn’t make it up, the managers are a genuine disgrace with there disregard to your safety and selfishness, it’s a shame because the job is not enjoyable at the. Moment and it hasn’t for a while, I get the feeling they are trying to hope long termers leave and just bring in youngsters who know no different

Again I'm definitely NOT defending our fatcat bosses... but you can't really compare us to the supermarkets who are still operating, don't forget they will have made HUGE profits from the 2-3 weeks of panic buying that will more than offset any of the additional costs they now face, so they can afford to throw a few crumbs of rewards to their staff.

matthew68 · Post by **matthew68** » 28 Mar 2020, 17:29

wacko74 wrote:
matthew68 wrote:Supermarket workers given a pay rise during the crisis and extra discounts on food and a huge thank you from there bosses at this difficult time. We are told to walk to our start of delivery and back which could be another 4 miles a day and told you can’t cut off because traffic is down and it could be a disciplinary if you bring mail back! You couldn’t make it up, the managers are a genuine disgrace with there disregard to your safety and selfishness, it’s a shame because the job is not enjoyable at the. Moment and it hasn’t for a while, I get the feeling they are trying to hope long termers leave and just bring in youngsters who know no different

Again I'm definitely NOT defending our fatcat bosses... but you can't really compare us to the supermarkets who are still operating, don't forget they will have made HUGE profits from the 2-3 weeks of panic buying that will more than offset any of the additional costs they now face, so they can afford to throw a few crumbs of rewards to their staff.

I know what you mean but there is no thanks from our manager at the moment just a case of get on with it when people complain about lack of social distancing and soap and general cleanleness in office, it seems to be a really uncaring company to work for in these troubled times.i know its difficult for everyone at the moment but we have been far to slow at work to sort out single vans and social distance and now we have 2 off sick with symptons and i am afraid its going to get a lot lot worse thanks to a lack of urgency from the top down and we still havent adopted the 2 metre rule at our place its just ridiculous