BONN – The German Post Office, Deutsche Post AG, will announce on Wednesday that it is taking a 25 percent stake in DHL, the $3 billion US delivery service company.
The acquisition has been in the works for the better part of a year, informed sources said, ever since the Dutch bought Australia-based TNT last year.
Deutsche Post AG's contracts with TNT expire in the middle of this year and it did not wish to renew them with a company owned by a major rival. The Dutch and the Germans have been feuding on postal markets for years.
As a result the Germans have been looking for a new partner to help them handle their international courier and express service. The acquisition was reported in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany's most prestigious newspaper.
Deutsche Post AG has declined comment on the move but postal chief Klaus Zumwinkel has scheduled a press conference on March 25 in Frankfurt to inform the media about “a milestone in our international strategy.”
