PostNL rejects bid from Belgian postal service

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PostNL NV PNL on Friday rejected Belgian postal service bpost SA's (BPOST.BT) roughly $3.17 billion unsolicited offer, saying it doesn't represent a sufficiently compelling value for shareholders and it is confident in its prospects as a standalone company.

PostNL shares at 1025 GMT were down 6.1% at 4.44 euros, leading the Stoxx600 index fallers. Bpost shares were also down--0.16% to EUR21.36.

The Dutch mail firm said it carefully considered bpost's proposal made earlier this month, but remains confident about the strategy management is implementing and executing successfully, resulting in PostNL's improved performance.

PostNL confirmed on Nov. 7 that it had received a letter from its Belgian peer offering to buy the Dutch firm for 5.65 euros ($7.09) a share in cash and shares. Bpost offered EUR2.825 cash per share plus 0.1202 bpost shares for each PostNL share held.


It said Friday the board hasn't been in discussions with bpost about a possible combination of the companies since they ended talks earlier this year.

The companies in May broke off talks about a potential merger, which would have created one of Europe's largest publicly-traded postal companies. The postal sector in Europe is suffering from declining mail volume, though it is experiencing rapid growth in parcel delivery, as more customers shop for goods online.

Bpost is smaller than PostNL in revenue terms and employees but is more profitable. Its market value of roughly 4.3 billion euros ($5.44 billion) is more than double that of its Dutch rival.