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Thursday, 24 December 2015 - 13:30
Report: UK’s Royal Mail looks to acquire PostNL
There are rumors abound that the United Kingdom postal service is about to make a bid on Dutch counterpart PostNL, British newspaper Daily Mail reported.
According to the paper, the offer stands at 5 euros per share and may be announced early next year. PostNL is valued at nearly 2 billion euros and could help Royal Mail adress the problem of falling revenues caused by the significantly lower mail volumes due to a shift from addressed letters to online shopping packages.
The rumors alone was enough to boost PostNL's share on the Dutch stock market by nearly 5 percent to 3.23 euros on Wednesday.
In reaction ING analyst Marc Zwartsenburg told news wire ANP that this acquisition is "certainly possible", pointing to PostNL's strong position in parcel delivery. The Dutch postal service is also well on its way to making the post operation very efficient.
The rumored price of 5 euros is, however, below ING's target price of 5.30 euros per share.