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Deutsche Post eyes DHL
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September 13, 2000: 6:31 a.m. ET
Report: Postal service poised to buy French Geodis and increase stake in DHL
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LONDON (CNNfn) - German post office operator Deutsche Post AG is poised to buy French transport and distribution company Geodis and take a majority stake in Netherlands-based DHL International as European postal monopolies prepare to face more competition, a report said on Wednesday.
Deutsche Post Chief Executive Klaus Zumwinkel is expected to announce the acquisition in Paris on Friday, German daily Handelsblatt reported. Zumwinkel on Wednesday called the information obtained by the newspaper "speculation."
European countries have until Jan. 1, 2003 to open up international and domestic postal markets to competition. In the meantime, government controlled postal services are expanding by acquisitions and alliances to head off competition from nimbler parcel distributors and transportation companies.
In recent months, TNT Post Group of the Netherlands, the U.K. Post Office and Singapore Post forged a joint venture to fend off competition from acquisitive Deutsche Post. The German postal service and partner Lufthansa Cargo AG already control DHL, each holding a stake of 25 percent.
Deutsche Post, Europe's biggest postal service, is unlikely to buy shares from Lufthansa Cargo, according to people close to the company, and may plan to make an offer for the shares held by Japan Airlines Company Ltd., DHL employees and members of the company's founding families.
Separately, Chief Financial Officer Edgar Ernst told Reuters that Deutsche Post plans an initial public offering of its own stock, putting a quarter of its equity up for sale in November. That could mean an offering of some 275 million Deutsche Post shares, out of its total capital of 1.11 billion shares. 
--from staff and wire reports
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