La Poste said Friday to have generated a net profit of 525 million euros in the first half, a clear recovery after the air hole caused by the first confinement while a very large exceptional product had confused the reading of the accounts. last year.
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The public group had posted a net profit of 2.315 billion euros over the first six months of 2020 thanks to exceptional income of 3.6 billion brought by CNP Assurances shares which the group took control in March. Without this element, he would have suffered a loss of 1.2 billion euros. The group's half-year turnover this year is up 16.3% to 16.857 billion euros thanks to the strong dynamism of e-commerce and acquisitions (including CNP Assurances over a full half-year).
"
This first half of 2021, La Poste has strengthened the foundation of its activities, accelerated the development of its growth engines, while remaining fully committed to its (...) public service missions
", commented the CEO in a press release. Philippe Wahl, welcoming "the
start of recovery made possible by the continued commitment of postal workers
".
Rebound in most sectors
Traditional mail activity, particularly affected by the containment of spring 2020, recovered slightly, with turnover up 10.4%. If volumes increased by 6.4% over one year, they are still down by 21% compared to the first six months of 2019, before the health crisis. The 32% increase in classic parcel volumes (Colissimo), however, enabled the turnover of the Services-Courrier-Parcels branch to increase by 18.5% to 6.53 billion euros. It comes out of the red with an operating profit of 187 million euros.
GeoPost (express parcels, including Chronopost in France) is also benefiting from the boom in e-commerce with a 22% increase in turnover.
Its operating income jumped 52% to 533 million euros.
As for La Banque Postale, its net banking income grew by 4.8% to 3.97 billion euros over the half-year.
Its contribution to the group's operating income reached 755 million euros.
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In the end, La Poste's operating income was divided by 2.3 to 1.14 billion euros. The comparison is brighter if we disregard the integration of CNP Assurances last year, since the group had then suffered, without taking into account this exceptional element, an operating loss of 419 million. The net result will be positive for the whole year, predicted CFO Yves Brassart.