Belgium’s postal operator bpost is still pursuing its approach to merge with neighbour PostNL despite the Dutch postal operator giving bpost the brush off last week.

As previously reported on Apex Insight, bpost filed a renewed and improved proposed offer last week, only for PostNL to respond on Friday 11 November with a rejection letter from the Boards.

Undaunted it seems, on Thursday 17th November, bpost announced it has “submitted a letter to the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of PostNL addressing the concerns and questions regarding the combination as expressed by PostNL in its letter dated 11 November 2016.”

In the statement from bpost it said that it has also provided a draft merger agreement and has again invited the PostNL Boards to discuss the renewed proposal.

In the letter sent last Friday, PostNL said that its Boards were “confident” of the company’s “stand-alone strategy”, and also expressed concerns that “the proposed governance structure, composition and practice will make the combined group susceptible to Belgian political differences and not agile to effectively manage the company”.

It seems that bpost feels that one postal operator serving both the Low Countries is in the interest for the pair of the two companies, but PostNL values its independence. While the approach last week was done hurriedly after a leak in the media indicated its intentions (and this could end up having wrecked the whole strategy) it seems that bpost is undaunted by the continued refusals by PostNL’s management. Only time will tell what eventually happens…

 
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