Poste Italiane goes shopping. The company led by Matteo Del Fante has signed a preliminary agreement with the Dutch company PostNL European Mail Holdings and with the German Mutares Holding for thepurchase of 100% of Nexive Group, ex Tnt.
The transaction, which is expected to close by January 2021, currency Nexive 60 million euros, while the final purchase price will be fixed at the end of the due diligence process, within which the final terms and conditions will also be established.
Nexive is a postal operator also active in Italy with a market share of approximately 12% in mail, equal to approximately 350 million volumes per year, and a market share of approximately 1% in parcels, equal to approximately 8 million pieces delivered in 2019. In 2019 the company it recorded pro forma revenues of around 200 million euro, employs 1.300 people and over 5.000 people from external partner companies.
The newly announced acquisition represents an important concentration for the Italian market, dominated by Poste and otherwise divided among many small operators. For this reason it will have to be subjected to examination by the Antitrust. “The transaction is governed by art. 75 of August Decree, which provides that certain concentration operations are considered authorized subject to indication to the AGCM of suitable measures to prevent the risk of imposition of prices or other contractual conditions that could be burdensome for users as a result of the operation. Pursuant to the aforementioned law, within 30 days of the communication the AGCM may request any additions to the measures previously proposed by Poste Italiane, also taking into account the economic sustainability of the operation”, Poste continues.
According to Poste, this operation would allow the company “to exploit potential economies of scale resulting from the consolidation of Nexive's businesses, improving the level of service for customers of both companies". Not only that, "from a strategic point of view, like what happened in other European countries, the structural contraction of the postal market, further aggravated by the effects of the restrictions adopted to deal with the health emergency, makes it urgent to consolidate the mail and of the related logistical infrastructures, to safeguard its sustainability, employment levels and the availability of the service for customers".
The agreement for the possible acquisition of Nexive is useful for the country, it creates value and at the same time improves the quality of the delivery service. This is the comment released on TG Poste by Matteo Del Fante. The manager specified that, when the operation is definitively authorised, “we will be able to have mainly synergies and savings on the cost side. These are - added Del Fante - costs that Nexive has and that by joining the Poste group it will stop having, increasing its value. And, at the same time, Poste Italiane will not have to incur costs that it would have had to face in the absence of this acquisition".
On the cost-effectiveness of the operation, Del Fante explained: “The first signals from the target side are positive. According to our assessments, even assuming a harmonization of the workforce, the operation respects the criterion of cost-effectiveness”. "This operation - added Del Fante - is good for Italy and creates value"
At Piazza Affari, the title Poste Italiane gains 1,53% to 8,636 euros.
