DGAP-Adhoc: Deutsche Post AG: State aid ruling of European Commission will not affect net profit or dividend proposal

Deutsche Post AG  / Key word(s): Legal Matter/Statement

25.01.2012 13:01

Dissemination of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG, transmitted
by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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State aid ruling of European Commission will not affect net profit or
dividend proposal

  - Company to file appeal against today's state aid ruling of the European
    Commission

  - Deutsche Post CEO Appel: 'The EU decision has no basis in fact'

  - Group meets EBIT-Guidance for 2011

Bonn, January 25, 2012: Deutsche Post DHL, the world's leading mail and
logistics group, will file an appeal with the European Court of Justice
against the state aid ruling made today by the European Commission and has
aligned this decision with the German federal government. In 2007 the
European Commission initiated a formal investigation against the Federal
Republic of Germany concerning alleged unlawful state aid to Deutsche Post
AG. During the investigation, the Commission addressed matters they had
examined earlier during similar state aid proceedings from the year 2002
and that had ended in a defeat for the Commission in September 2010 as a
result of a company appeal in the ultimate legal instance.

'The EU Commission's ruling on a repayment is incomprehensible and has no
basis in fact,' said Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL. 'It stands in
clear contradiction to an earlier EU decision and the outcomes of similar
proceedings. If you examine the state aid rulings on other European postal
service providers, it becomes quite clear that here the Commission has
applied double standards. We are absolutely confident that the decision
will have no validity in court and are proceeding on the assumption that
the amount plus interest will be repaid.'

The current proceedings focused on state grants like financial equalization
and the funding of civil servant pensions at Deutsche
Post. In its decision today, the Commission found no case of incompatible
state aid with respect to financial equalization.

When the Commission examined the funding of civil servant pensions, it did
however reach the conclusion that the pension expenses of Deutsche Post
were in part incorrectly assessed in the case of price approvals by the
Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) and thus in some cases involved
incompatible state aid. The EU Commission, according to its current ruling,
demands that Deutsche Post repay this state aid to the Federal Republic of
Germany in the amount of 500 million to one billion euros. Given
information already provided, the company assumes the amount will be at the
lower end of the range. Moreover, no other state aid proceedings involving
the Group are pending at the European Commission.

Since it is the company's opinion that today's state aid ruling cannot
withstand legal review, the payment that is to be made in the next few
months will be recorded only in the balance sheet for 2012. As a
consequence, company earnings both in the past fiscal year and in the years
to come as well as the basis of the dividend that is yet to be proposed for
fiscal year 2011 remain unaffected by the decision. The liquidity of the
Group will be temporarily affected by the payment, but will continue to
remain solid.

At the same time the company has assessed its operational performance in
the past fiscal year as successful, six weeks before the presentation of
the 2011 figures. 'I am very satisfied with our performance in the past
year, a year in which we met the guidance that was repeatedly revised
upwards,' said Frank Appel. 'We have shown impressively that we are
excellently positioned and that we have every reason to continue to look
optimistically into the future.'

- The End -

Contact: 
Martin Ziegenbalg
EVP Investor Relations
Tel: 0228-182-63000


25.01.2012 DGAP's Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements,
Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.
Media archive at www.dgap-medientreff.de and www.dgap.de

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Language:     English
Company:      Deutsche Post AG
              Charles-de-Gaulle-Straße 20
              53113 Bonn
              Germany
Phone:        +49 (0)228 182 - 63 100
Fax:          +49 (0)228 182 - 63 199
E-mail:       ir@deutschepost.de
Internet:     www.dp-dhl.de
ISIN:         DE0005552004
WKN:          555200
Indices:      DAX
Listed:       Regulierter Markt in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt (Prime
              Standard), Hamburg, Hannover, München, Stuttgart; Terminbörse
              EUREX
 
End of Announcement                             DGAP News-Service
 
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