PostNL sells half its stake in TNT Express

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Dutch national postal operator PostNL said last night that it has sold half the stake it held in global integrator TNT Express, for EUR 507m.

PostNL sold nearly 82m shares in Netherlands-based TNT Express in a private placement with institutional investors, about 15% of the company.

The deal was based on a share price of EUR 6.20 per share, with PostNL stating that it will use the proceeds from the sale to pay down some of its debt. The sale of PostNL’s shares in TNT Express came at a 35% discount compared to the unsuccessful EUR 9.50 per share offer made by UPS for all the shares in TNT Express last year.

If PostNL had sold its shares at the price UPS offered last year, it would have netted more than EUR 750m for the stake.

“Following completion of the Placement, PostNL’s remaining stake will comprise 80,386,421 TNT Express ordinary shares, equivalent to approximately 14.8% of the outstanding share capital of TNT Express,” the company confirmed in a statement.

PostNL said it used Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs to arrange the sale, with ING and Rabobank International as co-lead managers. Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor.

TNT Express issued a statement last night confirming the sale and noting that the sale left PostNL with a 14.8% stake.

“The partial disposal consisted of a private placement to institutional investors of TNT Express outstanding shares,” it said.

Demerged

PostNL and TNT Express separated from each other back in May 2011, with the postal operations becoming PostNL and the express side of the business becoming TNT Express.

PostNL, which remained the universal postal service provider for the Netherlands as well as continuing to run postal businesses using the TNT Post brand in the UK, Germany and Italy, kept a 29.8% stake in TNT Express after the demerger.

Since the demerger, TNT Express has struggled to achieve the kind of financial results expected by investors, and earlier this year saw the anticipated takeover by rival Integrator UPS collapse as European regulators blocked the deal.

Following the collapse of the UPS deal, TNT Express has been engaged in a global cost-cutting campaign, while PostNL has stated its intention of selling its stake in TNT Express, but over the medium term so as not to devastate the share price.