La Poste Declines Seur

摘要

GeoPost, which belongs to the French mail service provider La Poste, has buried its plans to acquire the Spanish express service provider Seur. The executive board of the French postal operator had instructed its express holding GeoPost to raise the 19.6% shareholding in the Spanish CEP service provider to nearly 72% on 10 September last year. La Poste director Jean-Paul Bailly said at the time that he had agreed that GeoPost could purchase Seur for EUR 520 to 560 million.rnThe French postal specialist made the offer in response to the British financial investor Doughty Hanson's intention of acquiring a stake in Seur. Doughty Hanson offered about EUR 1 billion for 52%rnof Seur's shares last summer. The GeoPost management has presumably decided to forego a majority stake in Seur because of the current economic and financial crisis. Under the present circumstances the price is too high. La Poste/GeoPost are already Seur's biggest single shareholder, with 19.6%. In addition, the French company's Seur franchises in Madrid and Barcelona (both Spain) are the two most important in Seur's domestic network. Seur generated a turnover of EUR 665 million in 2007 (more recent figures are not yet available).