Deutsche Post to launch online secure mail service

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Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:14pm GMT

* Still unsure how to price new offering

* Letter mail business to have stable EBIT by 2015

* Deutsche Post has no acquisition plans in short term-CEO

(Adds details, background)

HAMBURG, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Deutsche Post DHL (DPWGn.DE) is launching an online mail service in the first half of 2010 in a move to halt sliding earnings at its legacy mail business.

Customers will be able to securely send confidential business mail and official documents electronically. The company, whose letters business has traditionally been a cash cow but has been hit by e-mail and other electronic communication, will spend a double-digit million euro sum to promote the new service.

Deutsche Post, Europe's biggest mail and express delivery company, has been racing to compete with rivals like Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) which launched its own system last month.

The company has not yet decided how much to charge for the service. One option is a set fee for unlimited use over a month or a year.

The company has also not raised postage prices in 12 years.

The letter mail division posted 1.61 billion euros ($2.41 billion) operating profit in 2008, down from 1.97 billion a year earlier.

Juergen Gerdes, the head of the letter mail business, said he expected EBIT to continue to decline until 2015 at the latest but hoped the earnings drop would level out before then.

CEO Frank Appel said he is "very satisfied" with the overall business over the past few months. In the first nine months of 2009, it won new business worth about 2 billion euros. He said he still could not provide an outlook for 2010.

He said Deutsche Post plans to grow organically for the moment rather than make acquisitions, adding there are no viable acquisition targets.

He said a takeover of rival TNT TNT.AS would be impossible due to anti-trust reasons, U.S. peer United Parcel Service (UPS.N) was too big and FedEx (FDX.N) is protected by U.S. legislation barring the takeover of airlines by foreign firms.

Over the past few years, acquisitions worth billions of euros have helped Deutsche Post grow from a state monopoly to a global company with more than 500,000 employees.

(Editing by David Cowell)

($1=.6679 Euro)

(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Maria Sheahan)

((maria.sheahan@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1286; Reuters Messaging: maria.sheahan.thomsonreuters.com@thomsonreuters.net)) Keywords: DEUTSCHEPOST/

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