The new company is expected to apply for listings on the Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges mid 1998 after separation from KPN. The question of listings on the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges is still being studied. This step will make it the world's first listed company with roots in postal activities.
The group will be structured for greater responsiveness in the marketplace and for intensive co-operation between its constituent divisions. The head office of the holding company will be established later this year at Hoofddorp near Amsterdam Airport.
The TNT/PTT Post Group is a leading global company whose core activities are national/international mail, express and logistics services. The group operates in more than 200 countries worldwide and has approximately 100,000 employees of whom roughly 56,000 work in the Netherlands. The group had first-half year sales of 1997 of NLG 7.358 billion and made an operating income of NLG 630 million.
The new organisation
The board of Management of the TNT/PTT Post Group will consist of Ad Scheepbouwer (Chief Executive Officer), Peter Bakker (Chief Financial Officer), Bert van Doorn (Executive Vice President PTT Post) and John Fellows (Executive Vice President). Mr. Carel Paauwe will also join the Board as Executive Vice President Strategy. Mr. Paauwe comes to the group from McKinsey & Company.
There will be fourteen business units within the TNT/PTT Post Group. Six will be PTT Post business units and eight TNT business units.
The business units of PTT Post are Letters, Document Handling, Media Service, Parcel Service, Consumers/International and Postkantoren (Post Offices), the joint venture with the Postbank (part of the ING Group). As far as possible their head offices will be located in the Hague.
The TNT business units are Benelux, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy/France/Spain, Australia/Asia, North America, International Express and Interna-tional Mail. Some of PTT Post's present business units will be made part of TNT's Benelux business unit; they are Logistics and EMS. The Benelux-based parts of the former TNT organisation (TNT Express Worldwide and TNT Log-istics) will also move to the new Benelux business unit.
From state enterprise to multinational in ten years
Royal PTT Nederland (KPN) was created as a private company in 1989 out of the former PTT state enterprise called Netherlands Postal and Telecommunications Services. At that time the PTT Post operating company was already one of the world's few profitable postal companies. At the moment PTT Post is the most efficient postal service in the world and in November 1997 was awarded the Dutch Quality Prize. Its strategy since moving into the private sector has been to reduce costs, increase quality and internationalise its business by introducing new products and services and by making acquisitions. During recent years, the company acquired total or partial interests in sixteen companies, the most prominent of which was the successful bid made by KPN and PTT Post for all issued shares of the Australian transport and logistics company TNT Ltd. Late 1996 PTT Post also acquired all shares of the international express company TNT Express Worldwide. In a single stroke, this has made TNT/PTT Post Group one of the four global players in mail, express and logistics.
