Austrian Post bought the remaining stake in Postmaster from three natural persons for an undisclosed amount.
“According to the agreement with the stockholders, we will not disclose the value of the two deals. The papers on the transaction were signed early this month,” Adreas Dragosits, vice-president of Austrian Post said in a news conference.
Asked whether Austrian Post is interested to become a strategic investor at national postal company Posta Romana, Dragosits said it has no intention in that respect as it only targets private operators.
Prior to the deal, Postmaster was held by natural persons Mihai Balaj and Mihai Preotescu with 14.8% of the share capital each, Radu Constantin Potolea, with 44.4%, while Austrian Post Group held a 26% stake since October 2011.
“Postmaster takeover targeted a better presence of Austrian Post at the liberalization of the post office market in Romania, as of January 1, 2013. We want to take advantage of this moment,” added Dragosits.
The core business of the company is delivering direct mail items (advertising mail) weighing more than 50 grams. “As a consequence, the company already has a very good starting position for the upcoming postal market liberalisation in Romania as of the year 2013 and a solid basis for future growth. As the top alternative postal company, Postmaster also delivers unaddressed direct mail items throughout Romania,” Austrian Post said in a statement.
Postmaster was established in 2007 and eyes EUR11 million turnover in 2012, up 10% from a year before. It employs a delivery staff of close to 1,700 people delivering some 300 million unaddressed direct mail items and about 20 million addressed direct mail items.
Austrian Post employs 23,400 people and it is made of two units: Mail&Branch Network and Parcel&Logistics. It operates on ten European markets, more than 30% of the company’s turnover coming from foreign operations.
In 2011, Austrian Post reported a 4.2% higher turnover, to EUR2.35 billion.