By Diana Mandia
(Reuters) -Dutch postal firm PostNL on Monday forecast a 2023 operating profit significantly below market expectations and said it would cut between 200 and 300 jobs this year to reduce costs, sending its shares down 12%.
The group, which delivers parcels and letters across Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, said price adjustments would not be enough to fully offset costs which it expected to increase beyond the already high level seen in 2022.
PostNL forecast normalised operating profit of between 70 million and 100 million euros in 2023, compared with 84 million euros last year.
The outlook was 43% below consensus, according to Jefferies, while UBS said the guidance was “materially below” consensus expectations.
PostNL said it would cut jobs in support positions such as head office and staff related roles by the end of the year, resulting in restructuring and other costs of 20 million euros ($21.1 million) in 2023.
The group also said it would delay the second tranche of its share buyback programme, planned for this year, until there was a further recovery in business performance.
Delivery and postal firms from PostNL to Deutsche Post and FedEx have seen parcel volumes drop from pandemic highs, and have flagged signs of further demand slowdown as high inflation erodes consumer confidence.
Pointing to post-pandemic overcapacity in the market, PostNL forecast a low-single-digit percentage decline in 2023 volumes, but said it saw growth in the long term, with a margin improvement of at least 200 basis points by 2024.
“Our competitors, but clearly also our clients, expected for 2022 a year of growth and that obviously led to investments in capacity,” finance chief Pim Berendsen told Reuters.
($1 = 0.9475 euros)
(Reporting by Diana Mandiá in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi, Kirsten Donovan)
