Government approves sixth management contract
Friday 30 October 2015After the earlier award by the Government of the contract for the delivery of newspapers and magazines to bpost, the Council of Ministers today also approved the sixth management contract. The management contract will now be notified to the European Commission.
The award of the sixth management contract to bpost entails that bpost will continue to provide the Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) included in the fifth management contract for the next five years. These consist among others of the maintenance of an extensive retail network and services such as the payment at home of pensions, the execution of financial postal services and the social role of the postman. On the request of the European Commission, the delivery of newspapers and magazines is no longer part of the management contract. This service had already been granted to bpost, after a public consultation of the market.
The calculation of the compensation linked to this contract is based on the same principles as those in the previous contract and is in line with EU legislation. bpost will receive a maximum compensation (excluding inflation)(1) for both the press concessions and the sixth management contract of EUR 261.0 million in 2016, EUR 260.8 million in 2017, EUR 257.6 million in 2018, EUR 252.6 million in 2019 and EUR 245.6 million in 2020. These amounts need to be inflated on a cumulated yearly basis. The decrease in total compensation is based upon volume estimates for press and a sharing mechanism for efficiency gains in both press and other SGEIs.
Koen Van Gerven, CEO of bpost, is satisfied with the reached agreement: "By awarding once again the execution of important services of public interest in the coming years to bpost, the government has shown their trust in us for the long term. For bpost this means that we can continue to build on our strengths. These two important decisions make us look into the future with confidence."
For more information:
Baudouin de Hepcée T. +32 2 276 2228 (Press and Investors)
Saskia Dheedene T. +32 2 276 7643 (Investors only)
www.bpost.be/ir
(1) These amounts are based on IFRS and BGAAP accounting principles with regard to earnings recognition, rather than the budget accounting principles as applied by the Belgian state.