CTT’s profit go down 49.3%, making less than €10m
The Portuguese postal services have registered a 49.3% fall in profits over the first nine months of the year, in comparison to 2017., reaching €9,9m.
CTT have profited less during the first nine months of the year. The net results of the company led by Francisco de Lacerda, have shrunk to almost half, standing now at €9,9m, mostly due to the restructuring plan the company is under.
The non-recurring costs, which are the result of this plan, have weighed down on the company’s profits. CTT has paid, between January and September, around €15,8m in reparations to their workers who have accepted to be laid off by mutual agreement (the company had lost 253 employees in September 2018 in comparison to the same period last year).
These costs have had an effect on the company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), with the indicator backing down by 22.7% to €45,8m, even though revenue had increased.
The operating income increased 1.3% to reach €524,9m, which was the result of an increase of 14.7% in terms of revenue coming from Expresso and package Delivery services, which have contributed in €110,4m of the total revenue of the company. In the post service segment, revenue increased by 0.9% to €396,8m.
Mail continues to be the main source of income for the company. One year after the CTT has issued their historical profit warning (which caused the company’s stocks to fall by 40% over 13 sessions last year), letters continue to be vital for the company’s sustainability.
The guidance gap over the first nine months of 2018 was at 5% and 6%, but the volume of mail registered a 7.1% year-on-year fall in that same period. Until the month of September, the Portuguese postal services had delivered 515,7 million addressed mail items, whereas non-addressed mail had fallen by 14% to 316,8 million items delivered, in the same 9-month period.
The financial services of the company have also been less profitable this year. The revenue coming from this segment went down by 29% to €30,7m. The company explains there was a slow-down in this sector due to the “decrease in public debt placement offerings, which were substituted in October 2017 by offerings with a lower yield”. The losses in terms of fees reached €12,2m, having fallen by 52.3%.
Credit concession reaches its “highest levels to date”
“This quarter showed the best performance in terms of housing and private consumption credit concession. 91,000 new accounts were opened at the CTT Bank, between January and September, an average of 500 new accounts a day”, Francisco de Lacerda, CEO of CTT, told ECO, after the information was released.