Elections Give Europe’s Postal Companies a Welcome Boost
(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s mail delivery firms got a much-needed boost from the barrage of elections that have swept through the region this year as large swathes of the electorate chose to cast their ballots by post.
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Austrian Post AV raised its revenue and profit guidance on Wednesday, citing major nationwide votes as well as European parliamentary elections in June as a key contributor.
Bpost SA said last week that European, federal and regional elections in Belgium added €3.8 million ($4.2 million) in revenue during the three months through June.
Last month, Royal Mail-owner IDS Plc logged 11.2% growth in total letter revenue on the back of a record number of postal votes and candidate mail in its quarterly update after former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to call a snap election for July 4.
Elections also gave Dutch service PostNL NV and German carrier Deutsche Post AG’s letter businesses a temporary reprieve as they struggle with a trend toward electronic mail.
Without the impact of postal votes and candidate mail, volumes would have been down 6% rather than 1.3% in the second quarter, PostNL’s Chief Executive Officer Herna Verhagen said on an earnings call on Aug. 5.
“As expected, the German letter mail business declined, though the European elections, among other factors, somewhat slowed this trend,” Deutsche Post said in its earnings statement last week. Revenue from its post and parcel division rose 4.1% to €4.2 billion in the second quarter.
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