“The privatization committee met today to discuss the Bpost bid, with the investor then to do the due-diligence and submit a binding bid for Posta Romana in two or three months,” Petrescu said.
There has been a number of poorly devised privatization attempts since the government committed to privatize the company in 2006-2007, he added.
“The will to privatize Posta [Romana] is there. A capital increase was operated. A major postal company submitted a bid in September. It was very important that we attract at least one major company for this privatization.”
The company posted 1.02 billion lei (EUR228 million) revenue and RON75 million profit in January-November 2014. Petrescu estimates this year’s revenue will amount to RON1.16 billion.
“2015 is a bridge year between what happened at the Posta and what needs to happen. It is very important that it stay profitable. The market changes. Unless Posta develops new lines of business, such as e-commerce and financial services, for instance, revenue will continue to decline.”
The only area Posta Romana is still a major player in is letters and bills, where its market share stands at about 75%. Market share growth came from securing large customers such as utility suppliers. One of its projects entails having postmen reading electricity meters.
Posta Romana gets 33% to 40% of its revenue from bill delivery, 35% from pension delivery and only 6% from express mailing services.
“Posta Romana accounts for only 3% to 4% of the courier service market. One can grow organically on this segment by investing in staff and equipment but one also needs strategic partnerships. We will soon announce such a partnership with probably the most important e-commerce company in Romania.”
The model has already been applied on the private courier service market, with FAN Courier announcing a partnership with OMV Petrom two days ago, which enables its customers to drop the parcels they want delivered to one of 300 Petrom stations.
Octavian Badescu, former head of Posta Romana’s courier service division, said over the phone that during his term in office he proposed a management plan for Prioripost that would have spin it off as a subsidiary, by the model of foreign companies in this business. His proposition was not accepted.
“I’m not sure if the government as a shareholder has the necessary will to make the company work very well. I think state-owned companies are handicapped by the ownership system,” Badescu said on ZF Live.
“It’s not OK to have the government own 100% because it has neither the revenue nor is it its purpose to handle such business.”
Posta Romana’s 2015 business plans include developing two new lines of business it launched last year: the franchising project and the insurance broker.
Posta Romana opened the first franchised office in Domino Plaza in Tei district in Bucharest and is in advanced talks with retail chains to open offices in their stores.
“This is a model that works very well abroad. All major companies have it in their strategies. We want to replicate this model throughout the entire country,” Petrescu added.
The postal operator also established its own insurance broker last year, which has two offices, one in Bucharest and one in Cluj-Napoca.
“We’re seeing five or six insurance contracts signed every day and estimate the division to generate RON2.5 million revenue this year.”
Another profitable contract for Posta Romana was the distribution of the health care card. The operator collected RON37 million for this particular job.
Posta Romana is currently employing about 27,000 people and has a network of more than 5,600 offices.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)