Appel faces shareholders: Post boss wants to invest even more

CEO Frank Appel is entering his last year at the helm of Deutsche Post. The shareholders benefit from the company’s booming business. But there was also criticism at the general meeting.

By Jörg Sauerwein, WDR

A year ago, the chairman of the supervisory board, Nikolaus von Bomhard, was still optimistic – the shareholders should come to Bonn in person at the next general meeting. A few months ago, however, a different decision had been made. And so Post boss Frank Appel had to look back into cameras instead of faces.

“We are living in a very difficult time because we have not yet left the pandemic behind us and it is still having an impact on the global economy and many people,” Appel said at the virtual shareholder meeting today. “We are dismayed by the war in Ukraine and strongly condemn it. However, there are also many positive things to report.”

“Record results in all divisions”

Because the Bonn group has a record year behind it – with significantly increased sales and profits. With the beginning of the pandemic, the booming online trade brought the postal service significantly increasing parcel numbers from quarter to quarter. But it’s not just here that business has been getting better lately. “If you go through the divisions, they all have record results,” said the Post boss. “Express made as much profit as the group as a whole in 2019. Global Forwarding and Freight made more than a billion for the first time and doubled earnings.”

In the first three months of this year, the freight division was even one of the main drivers for further increasing profits. Unlike online trading, which is slowly normalizing. This is why the number of parcels has recently even fallen slightly compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, the Post is sticking to its targeted profit of around eight billion. The war in Ukraine will not change that. There and in Russia and Belarus, the Post does not even make one percent of its sales.

How independent is the board of directors?

Appel said in Bonn that the financial impact of the war on Swiss Post had been relatively minor. In a year he wants to hand over his top position to Tobias Meyer. At the moment he is still the board member for Post and Parcel Germany and from July he will also take care of real estate, purchasing and IT, for example. “Mr. Meyer will take over these tasks from me, so that he can then also assume responsibility as CEO for the group at the next general meeting next year,” said the CEO.

Appel had been criticized beforehand because he had meanwhile been elected Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom, but at the same time wanted to remain Post boss for another year. At the Annual General Meeting, the shareholders also criticized the filling of new positions on the Supervisory Board. Some representatives are not independent, so the accusation. Among other things, Luise Hölscher, who is currently State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, is to move in there. The supervisory board of the Post sees it differently, the assessments differed widely here, explained the chairman of Bomhard.

Dividend rises by 45 cents

For his last year at Swiss Post, CEO Appel has decided to invest even more money – more than four billion this year alone. One of the areas that is important to him is sustainability. “We want to invest seven billion in sustainable fuels for air, sea and road by 2030,” said the manager. “We want to electrify 60 percent of our delivery vehicles, we want to make all new buildings that we build CO2-free.”

This journey has started and you can already see the first successes, explained Appel. On the other hand, the shareholders can be happy about the financial successes of the company. They should benefit from a significantly increased dividend. There should now be EUR 1.80 per share, 45 cents more than last year.