Austrian Post revenues amounted to EUR 981.9m in the first half of 2020, slightly higher than the prior-year level (+0.1 %). The dynamically growing parcel business showed a significant increase of 30.0 %, compensating for the decline in the Mail and Retail & Bank divisions.
The Mail Division accounted for 59.8 % of the Group revenue. In the Mail Division, the expected shortfalls resulted in a revenue decrease of 10.5 %. This is, on the one hand, due to a significant decline in conventional Letter Mail volumes triggered by the closure of many governmental offices and businesses.
On the other hand, Direct Mail revenue was also significantly impaired by the government-imposed store closings in response to COVID-19.
The revenue of the Parcel & Logistics Division was driven by organic growth from online orders as well as additional parcel volumes generated through the cooperation with Deutsche Post DHL Group since August 2019.
The 34.6 % revenue decrease in the newly created Retail & Bank Division in the first half of 2020 is due to the inaugural launch of bank99 on 1 April 2020, whereas the first half of the previous year still included service fees from the previous banking partner of EUR 18.8m.
The start-up of bank99 presents a significant special effect in 2020
bank99 has been operating on the market since the beginning of April and will feature a focused offering of financial services.
The bank has already attracted more than 42.000 customers in the first four months and recorded initial financial services revenue.
The objective is to add new products to the financial services offering in the upcoming quarterly periods and generate positive earnings contributions by 2023.
Accordingly, the Retail & Bank Division produced a negative earnings contribution of EUR 28.7m due to the start-up costs for bank99 and the impact related to COVID-19.
Group EBIT in the first half of 2020 totalled EUR 48.2m, down from EUR 107.7m in the first half of 2019. Earnings per share equalled EUR 0.66, compared to EUR 1.17 in the previous year.
