Half Year 2026 Osterreichische Post AG Earnings Call
Speaker #1: And the green circle in the middle of our strategy, we are and remain committed to three core values. One is sustainability, second customer focus, and third people focus aiming for an attractive company culture.
Speaker #1: Page 4 shows you that we have achieved important milestones in implementing the strategy. On post and beyond in Austria, we are investing in our network in Austria, in particular in the self-service element of our network.
Speaker #1: We have built up roughly 1,500 24/7 access points lockers and self-service branches, and with that we have crossed the surpassed the threshold of 3,000 postal points and now have the densest network in the history of Austrian Post.
Speaker #1: Point 2, our bank 99, is developing well. 4 million EBIT contribution in the first 6 months, I think it's a very nice progress from the break-even results of last year.
Speaker #1: We have launched our telecommunication offering yellow on April 1st, and have seen a strong customer ramp-up, fully according to plans. In a quite competitive Austrian telecommunication market, on international e-commerce, we can show very good growth in Austria with parcel volumes in Austria showing growth of 9%.
Speaker #1: And we have executed two acquisitions. One has been closed, the other one signed. One is EU shipments, a fast-growing fulfillment business based in Eastern Europe, but reaching beyond Eastern Europe, showing strong growth and strong margins.
Speaker #1: And second, two weeks ago we signed the acquisition of D Express, one of the leading parcel networks in Serbia, which we will merge with our own company, City Express, in Serbia, creating the—or one of the—leading private parcel networks in Serbia.
Speaker #1: Moving on to our core businesses along the strategy framework, starting with our lettermail business—still more than €1 billion of revenue—we see a somewhat accelerated decline in Austria.
Speaker #1: Driven by both the government saving across all ministries and also regional governments saving in all areas, trying to save money in all areas. But also, of course, corporates in Austria in a stagnating economy are trying to save on communication spendings.
Speaker #1: We still manage to show a revenue decline that is more moderate than the volume decline. And we continue in the execution of our strategy, moving to page 6, by trying to migrate most of the volumes into a slower E plus 2, 3 product.
Speaker #1: So our so-called standard product in the meantime, we have already around 85% of our volume in the slower standard product. And we have implemented five days ago a price increase on the premium service from 130 to 190, which will help us in the second quarter.
Speaker #1: We are stabilizing revenues but also migrating an even greater share of the total mail market into the slower product. Why does that help us? Because we bundle the delivery of the standard products on two days a week.
Speaker #1: So effectively we are moving to a twice a week mail service for the bulk of mail. Page 7, an update on bank 99. After a quite challenging ramp-up over the last five years and the finalization of the merger of bank 99 with the retail business of ING that we acquired in 21 and where the last step was the harmonization of two core banking systems last year, we are now 100% focused on the market.
Speaker #1: And this 100% market focus in combination with an improved cost structure pays off. And we see it in the bottom line. 4.2 million EBIT contribution of bank 99, in addition to contribution margin delivered into the postal network, I think is a nice development.
Speaker #1: And we are very confident that bank 99 can deliver even more revenues and profits over the next years. One element to improving and supporting growth in bank 99 is the offering of a of an asset management business.
Speaker #1: So basically the offer to consumers to buy shares ETFs, savings plans, and other products. This has been missing so far. And with that, we have a more or less complete product range.
Speaker #1: For retail customers, both payment services, checking account, as well as loan products, as well as asset management services. So nice development of our bank.
Speaker #1: Page 8, similarly, nice development of our postal network in Austria. We have passed the threshold of 3,000 postal access points. The growth has come from 24/7 lockers and self-service branches.
Speaker #1: These are increasingly accepted by consumers. Last year, 35 million transactions were handled through self-service facilities. Market research shows us that the 24/7 locker is already the most preferred access point to the postal network in Austria.
Speaker #1: As already surpassed, branch offices and postal partners. We continue to operate branches because these are the points where we can deliver and sell other services, and of course, also the postal services.
Speaker #1: With around 300 branch branches, I think we have a quite consolidated network already. And we also remain committed to maintaining a good number of postal partners across the country.
Speaker #1: Page 9, as already mentioned, our mobile offering under the brand Yellow, as the name says, very close to the postal brand. Positioned in a way that it maximizes the strong postal brand in Austria.
Speaker #1: The launch of this business has gone very smoothly. And customer ramp-up has been accomplished, fully according to plans. We already have a very good five-digit number of customers.
Speaker #1: Our positioning is clearly successful. What is the positioning? It's a quality network in cooperation with the Austrian telecom incumbent. Combined with fair and affordable prices, not necessarily the cheapest ones.
Speaker #1: And that is our differentiating factor with service and advice in postal branches and with postal partners. And we see that 90% of customers come from the postal branch channel as opposed to digital channels.
Speaker #1: It is a strong focus on an elderly population population that still looks for advice and people that help them with their mobile offering. And we think this is a nice customer segment where we are seeing a lot of potential.
Speaker #1: Moving to our parcel business, you see here the footprint. Parcel networks we have in Austria, Eastern Europe and Turkey and beyond in a total of 15 geographies.
Speaker #1: And we have made two very important inorganic steps over the last months. One is the acquisition of the company EU Shipments based in Bulgaria.
Speaker #1: With a strong footprint both in Bulgaria and Romania, but also servicing SMEs beyond those markets, we closed that transaction in March this year.
Speaker #1: And are seeing nice growth coming from this, nice margins. And two weeks ago we signed the takeover of 100% of the shares of the Express, one of the leading parcel networks in the Serbian market.
Speaker #1: And as said, we will merge this with our company City Express. And substantially improve our market position in the Serbian market. Moving to page 11, this gives you the overview of how different libraries and taxes will impact our parcel business in these markets.
Speaker #1: So in Turkey, more or less as of October last year. And early this year, the any minimum threshold on duty-free imports was removed. So all parcels from Asia have to go through customs.
Speaker #1: This had a strong impact on volumes that we also saw in our cargo. In the EU or in yeah, in the EU and also impacting our parcel business in Austria and in Eastern Europe in the EU markets.
Speaker #1: A de minimis customs rate of 3 euro per per customs category. And parcel was introduced on July 1st. We have seen a decline of across the board roughly 30% in the first months.
Speaker #1: This to put things into perspective, on an exposure of roughly 10% of parcels across the group that come from Asia. In Austria it was less than that, around 8%.
Speaker #1: In Austria also the impact was a little bit lower than the 30%. And we have already seen a recovery of of volumes over the last weeks.
Speaker #1: We think that the big e-commerce platforms will change their business models, will learn how to deal with those levies, how to show them vis-à-vis the buyers in online shops.
Speaker #1: And I think we'll quickly react and find ways to deal with that. Then in Austria, on October 1st, a parcel parcel tax of 2 euro 40 will be introduced on all platforms and retailers that make more than 100 million in revenues.
Speaker #1: So this will impact probably 70 to 80% of all Austrian parcels. And finally, on November 1, the EU plans to introduce an additional levy of €2 per item, category, or parcel.
Speaker #1: The details still not clear. But of course, the combination of these levies and taxes will have at least a short-term impact on our growth.
Speaker #1: We while we do not have full clarity clearly on what the impact be and how it will develop over time. We think that for the full year we will still show a good growth in our parcel business.
Speaker #1: But in the next six months, the growth will come down from double-digit growth to somewhere in the mid-single-digit growth figures. Yeah, with that said, let's have a look at Austria.
Speaker #1: In Austria, a very strong momentum in the parcel business, plus 9% growth in volumes, 10% in revenues. Shows that our market position is based on service advantages on quality advantages and also on, I think, clear cost advantages coming from scale, coming from efficiency, coming from investments.
Speaker #1: We continue to invest in Austria—in infrastructure, in IT, in our network, and in new services. Our Sunday delivery is developing well, and we continue to defend our market leadership.
Speaker #1: Let's move to Eastern Europe, page 13. Good growth. 8% volume growth, 7% revenue growth. However, quite competitive market. Impacting margins, a battle for market share going on there.
Speaker #1: Accordingly, also our margins have suffered. We are turning every stone in Eastern Europe both organizationally stronger integrating across countries, operationally, trying to capture efficiencies.
Speaker #1: And strategically investing in those markets, both organically in the build-up of our own locker networks, but also in acquisitions. Moving to page 14, the acquisition of Express that I have already mentioned.
Speaker #1: Will help to strengthen our market position in the Serbian market, creating the yeah, one of the leading parcel networks in Serbia. Adding 36 million revenues to our top line.
Speaker #1: And offering substantial synergies between our existing companies and the Express, which we will start on day one after closing to—yeah—by driving forward the integration of the two networks.
Speaker #1: Moving to Turkey, on page 15. Turkey remains our biggest biggest foreign market. Roughly 500 million in revenues. For the full year. The volume has been impacted as already mentioned by changes in customs.
Speaker #1: In particular for Asian parcels, accordingly, growth has been lower than anticipated before that. But still, we have seen at least slight growth. And good growth in revenues coming from a still high inflation in Turkey, although it has come down combined with a relatively stable currency.
Speaker #1: Which also had an impact on our put option accounting, which Barbara will comment on in a few minutes. Page 16, our acquisition in e-commerce fulfillment.
Speaker #1: We see a substantial opportunity. In Eastern Europe, in Central and Eastern Europe, by complementing our strong position in the last mile with fulfillment services.
Speaker #1: We think that the business model of EU shipment, which basically provides a bundle of services to SMEs ranging from software integration into large e-commerce platforms.
Speaker #1: To warehousing, consolidation, and shipping, transport, invoicing, and returns management, without necessarily operating the last mile themselves. And this business has shown good growth—double-digit growth over the last years.
Speaker #1: Is serving 1,300 SMEs. So quite balanced customer structure. Nice margins. And for the first months in our portfolio, we have consolidated it in March.
Speaker #1: We have been very happy with the development of EU shipments and we will continue to invest in this fulfillment business with the aim to become one of the leading providers of logistic services for e-commerce companies in Central and Eastern Europe.
Speaker #1: So with that, I have given you an overview on the implementation of our strategy and the development in our core business lines. And I now hand over to Barbara, who will give you more details on our financials.
Speaker #2: Thank you, Walter. Also, welcome from my side. Let me start today with our segment reporting to go through the segments, to better understand afterwards our results.
Speaker #2: So mail branch and services. We started the segment reporting only with first quarter of 2026. Also includes branch services and our telco business. Together with letter mail business solutions and also direct mail and media post.
Speaker #2: So this segment amounts for about 36% in the first half of 2026. Then we have the big block of e-commerce and logistics. Where the Austrian parcel business, also the international parcel business, as well as the fulfillment business and the e-commerce services are considered and this amounts for 59% of our revenues and then we have our youngest and smallest segment.
Speaker #2: It's the bank, the pure bank. We are showing now with about 5% of our revenues. Let me come to the next slide. Revenues were already mentioned.
Speaker #2: EBITDA is down by 11.7 million to 187.7 million. Due to the weaker business, we saw in different segments, I will come back afterwards. Balance sheet still very solid.
Speaker #2: With a low financial debt, amounting for 0.6 times net debt EBITDA. Only considering the financial debt and also logistic equity ratio of 24%. What we also showed in the first half of the year is a cash flow of 117 million.
Speaker #2: Which is also quite solid. I do not want to spend too much time on the revenue side. Even the user are good. So growth of 3.8%.
Speaker #2: Different pictures in different segments. Walter already commented on. Let me go through our profitability. To our EBIT. There you can see the sharp decline on the mail branch and services side.
Speaker #2: By minus €21.1 million compared to last year. The main reasons are the decrease in volumes and, on the other hand, also the lack of the telco business.
Speaker #2: With aim of one we still did in the first half of 2025. Rather good profitability on the e-commerce and logistics side. Driven by the Austrian parcel business as well as by our fulfillment business.
Speaker #2: We were not that happy with is the profitability in fee. Also there Walter already mentioned that we are facing strong competition. And also in Turkey, with the customs on Chinese parcels.
Speaker #2: Starting from the beginning of the year. But in Turkey we already saw good improvement in June 2026. Let me come now to the detailed income statement.
Speaker #2: Where I want to put your focus on our staff costs. If you compare our staff costs in the first half of 2025. With the first half of 2026.
Speaker #2: You see an increase. If you take the increase, it's mainly coming out of the inflation in Turkey, with €12 million. And on the other hand, with the expansion of our scope of consolidation.
Speaker #2: That's mainly in shipment but also our HLX stores. Our Greek IT company. Otherwise we were able to take out the cost on the personnel side with the wage increases.
Speaker #2: We were facing EBIT 73.3 million. I would like to come to the financial result with the next slide. Because there we see a tremendous decrease on the financial result side.
Speaker #2: And it's mainly driven by the valuation of the put option of our cargo. Where you can see on the right hand side the discrepancy between the high inflation and the changes in FX rates.
Speaker #2: In the first half of 2026. The total impact of inflation and FX was amounting for 20 million. And this is the main reason for the sharp decrease on the financial result.
Speaker #2: Going through to our segments. Main message of mail branch and services division is that the stronger volume decline and limited price effects in mail combined with the transformation of the telco business.
Speaker #2: Reduced profitability in H1 2026. E-commerce. There the positive revenue and earnings development in Austria and in e-commerce fulfillment. High competition and price pressure in CEC.
Speaker #2: Negatively impact earnings. So, this we already commented on. Bank division: there, we see now a sound and profitable course. We did the IT migration.
Speaker #2: Of the core banking system and what we see is that bank division is delivering good results every month. Coming to our solid balance sheet.
Speaker #2: Balance sheet mainly depends on the balance sheet of bank 99. There we are quite stable. And where I want to spend some work on is the equity.
Speaker #2: Equity declined due to the payout of dividends in April, amounting to very close to €124 million. On the other hand, we also did the initial consolidation of Shipment and of HLX in the first quarter of 2026.
Speaker #2: And this also had a negative impact on the equity. Coming now to our operating free cash flow. Our maintenance capex in the first half of 2026 amounted for 32.4 million.
Speaker #2: Out of this, about €11 million were green investments for e-mobility and e-charging infrastructure. Operating free cash flow amounted to €116.6 million. Gross capex was €12.3 million.
Speaker #2: And 59.3 million for the acquisition of EU shipment. Coming to our to the split of our capex. 2070 27% of capex were done internationally.
Speaker #2: Mainly coming from Budapest and Slovakia. But also for out of home initiative in the other countries in CE. And 73% were done in Austria.
Speaker #2: Mainly in our logistic hub in Salzburg. And the initiatives are already mentioned on the green investment side. Green investment. With this I come to the kickoff of our initiative.
Speaker #2: Vienna became the world's first major city with a population of over 1 million to achieve 100% CO2 free last mile delivery. And this there we had a celebration with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaker #2: Which was really recognized very positively. In the media. With this I want to hand over for the outlook to Walter.
Speaker #1: Yeah. Let me close our presentation with the outlook. As already mentioned, we confirm our guidance that we have already communicated in the last quarters.
Speaker #1: Overall the market remains challenging. We don't see immediate relief on the volume decline of mail. However we see continued volume increase. However in the second half of the year somewhat burdened and yeah burdened by the levies and taxes that I mentioned.
Speaker #1: What does that mean in revenues and EBIT? On a group level, we aim for a slight revenue increase for the full year, despite the mail.
Speaker #1: Volume decline. On the mail side as mentioned we have implemented a price increase on the premium price product. Which should stabilize mail revenues. And also on a quarter by quarter per quarter comparison the delta in telecommunication will become smaller.
Speaker #1: For the full year we talk about roughly 20 million in decline versus last year. In e-commerce and logistics we continue to expect growth for the full year.
Speaker #1: Despite the levies, however, a reduced growth is expected in the second half year. Bank, we more or less expect a continuation of the positive development of the first six months.
Speaker #1: As Barbara mentioned we do expect to invest roughly 140 to 160 million in capex. In logistics infrastructure IT and in locker networks. And on the earnings side we reign remain committed to target operating earnings in the order of magnitude of recent years.
Speaker #1: So, a bandwidth in the order of magnitude of €180 to €190 million, plus or minus. You may ask the question, where should the improvement come from?
Speaker #1: On the one hand we expect improvement from the price increase in the on the premium letters. We do expect an improvement in Turkey in the next six months.
Speaker #1: These improvements are coming from product price measures as well as efficiency measures that we have implemented in the first six months. We have already seen a strong impact in June.
Speaker #1: And third we do expect support from the acquisitions which we have made in particular on the earnings side from e-commerce fulfillment. Of course we are living in volatile times.
Speaker #1: And visibility is somewhat constrained, so we continue to see both opportunities and risks. On the risk side, it is the decline of letter mail volumes.
Speaker #1: And the duties and levies and taxes on parcels where the impact is still unclear. Of course the currency and the implications on our on certain non-cash effective accounting positions remains a risk.
Speaker #1: At the same time also an opportunity of course depending on the development of the Turkish lira. But we also see opportunities basically on the cost side.
Speaker #1: In Eastern Europe Turkey but also in Austria. We are continuously working on anorganic strengthening of our portfolio. And we are in an early phase of negotiations with the federal government.
Speaker #1: Some of you may remember that we have, yeah, a dispute around social security contributions, way back in the period from 1996 to 2008. All this is fully provisioned.
Speaker #1: So any positive outcome of negotiation should be a positive impact on the on the cash side. So we remain cautiously optimistic. To again make a little bit translate the EBIT guidance into specific numbers.
Speaker #1: In the last years we had an EBIT in the order of magnitude or in the range of 100 88 million euro. Up to a few million above 200 million.
Speaker #1: So that is basically the bandwidth that we guide here. And with that said thank you very much for your attention. And we now look forward to your questions.
Speaker #2: Yes. Thank you very much. And ladies and gentlemen at this time we will start the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question you may click on the raise your hand button.
Speaker #2: And if you're connected via phone, please press star-nine on your telephone keypad and enter the queue. So, the first question is from Marco Limite. You should be able to unmute yourself, switch on your microphone, and give your question, please.
Speaker #2: Mr. by now.
Speaker #3: Can we hear you?
Speaker #4: Now yes.
Speaker #3: Sorry. Thank you for taking my questions.
Speaker #1: Marco, I'm sorry. We can hear you, but we can hardly understand you. Is there any chance you could try again? Let's try again. Yeah.
Speaker #3: Okay. Sorry for that. First question is on the meaning. I appreciate the 10% mention. I'm wondering whether you can provide that by when, and whether that would be—my first question.
Speaker #1: Yeah Marco I'm sorry we it was very hard to understand you. I heard the first part of your question addressing the topic of the minimus and if I understood it correctly the question what is the exposure by countries.
Speaker #1: If that was the question, so we have in Austria, the Asia share of volumes is around 8%. In Eastern Europe, it's in the low double-digit figures.
Speaker #1: And the impact in July and let's really regard that as very early indication of the short-term impact and let's let's not forget you know after such a change there are a few days of technical issues where some systems might not be working.
Speaker #1: Maybe some advance purchases, where people have bought at the end of June to avoid the three euros. So it's very hard to really, from the first weeks, project anything into the future.
Speaker #1: But the impact has been more on the order of magnitude of 25%—so below 30% in Austria, above that in Eastern Europe. And so, for the full group, we are talking about a 10% share of Asia parcels.
Speaker #1: That is our exposure to Asian volumes, and that 10% has decreased to 7% in July. We expect that number to improve. As I said—why? Because, first, technical issues are being solved.
Speaker #1: Second e-commerce platforms learn how to handle this and how to optimize the way they show it in the during the online buying process. And they are also building up inventory and fulfillment centers in Europe some Chinese customers that have already done that before.
Speaker #1: There we see a clear difference. There, the impact is much smaller, if at all visible. So we do expect that Chinese e-commerce platforms will recover from those losses. It may take some time, but we think that after July we should expect a lower decline than we have seen in July.
Speaker #1: I don't know if I answered your question because it was really very hard to understand anything.
Speaker #3: I will try to speak very slowly for my second question, which is on your main vision. You are announcing—or you have introduced—big price increases on premium vendors.
Speaker #3: Can you clarify how much of your volumes is coming from lessers? And then my second question would be about yellow—around how much of yellow revenues shall we expect? Will yellow get to €7 million in revenues already in Q3, or maybe Q4, or maybe next year? What's the indication there?
Speaker #3: Thank you.
Speaker #1: Yeah, thank you, Marco. I think I understood 75%. I think the first question was—please correct me if I'm wrong—was on premium letters. The exposure, as you rightly said, is a significant price increase from €1.30 to €1.90.
Speaker #1: There is a strategic intent behind it, which is to migrate even more volume from the premium letter, which we deliver every day, five days a week, to the slower product, which we bundle on two days per week.
Speaker #1: We are already at around an 85% standard letter share, so there's about a 15% share left in the premium letter segment. We expect that the price measure will further decrease this share.
Speaker #1: On the one hand, allowing us to save further costs in bundling and in not touching households anymore, in particular in the countryside. On the three other days, just to give an order of magnitude, the average Austrian household today receives once a month a premium letter.
Speaker #1: And so we are really in an area where every letter that is not being sent in the premium product helps us to leave out one stop for the mailman.
Speaker #1: And at the same time of course you know 60 cent on 1 euro 30 is a quite significant price increase and for the for Q4 this should also support revenues.
Speaker #1: And on yellow, to be honest, I did not fully understand the question. I am guessing it was around the EBIT impact. So last year we had a ramp-down of our telecom corporation, so we had €20 million revenues for the full year—€13 million in the first half, €7 million in the second.
Speaker #1: This year we had nothing in Q1 and the ramp up in the you know starting from Q2. So in Q3 so the delta between the two years will become smaller from quarter to quarter.
Speaker #3: Thank you. I have one last question. Should we expect the second half in the main division to still be down over here, or will the price increases plus Yellow ramping up in that second half mean it's flat year over year?
Speaker #3: Thank you.
Speaker #1: So it would rise, but in relative terms, it should be better than in the first half.
Speaker #3: Thank you very much, and sorry for the technical problems.
Speaker #2: Yes, thank you very much. We now move on to the next participant. Ingo Schmidt, you should be able to unmute yourself and ask your question, please.
Speaker #4: Yeah, hello everyone. Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on this operational performance in the first half. First, on your expansion strategy: the integration of EU shipments is already showing good top-line results, and you announced the acquisition of DX Plus in Serbia.
Speaker #4: How did this addition strengthen your competitive edge in the CE region compared to local players? And second, regarding the international market environment, you mentioned persistent price pressure in CE and Turkey, as well as new regulatory hurdles for Asian e-commerce imports.
Speaker #4: How much of these cost pressures do you expect to offset through your July price adjustments? And what is your outlook on Asian parcel volumes for the rest of the year?
Speaker #4: And finally, on bank99 performance. After the very strong Q1, the bank segment normalized in Q2 with an EBIT of €1.6 million. How should we think about the underlying earnings trajectory of bank99 for H2, given the lower interest rate environment and ongoing customer growth?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Speaker #1: Yeah. So on bank 99, of course there is some uncertainty, as you correctly already implied in your question, on the interest rate environment. Overall, we see a rather supportive interest rate environment for the next six months, and I would say roughly take the first half of the year and, you know, multiply it by two, roughly. You know, of course, there is some uncertainty—maybe a little bit lower than that, maybe a little bit higher. Rather, you know, I think 100% is already the upper bandwidth. But overall, we see now a good run rate of, yeah, maybe €1.5 to €2 million per quarter.
Speaker #1: If there are no substantial changes in the interest rate environment, on the expansion in e-commerce fulfillment, I think if we look strategically, we believe in the region of Eastern Europe we see margins on in-parcel networks under pressure, in particular where we do not have a strong market position.
Speaker #1: We think that is an opportunity for players that offer a broader bundle to less dominant customers—so, smaller and medium-sized customers, where the strong competition on the carrier side is basically an opportunity.
Speaker #1: And so, therefore, we think this acquisition and the ability to serve SMEs with a broader e-commerce offering should help us to strengthen our Eastern European business and, if you look at it combined, to support margins.
Speaker #1: And third question on cost pressures and price increases: Yes, we are always trying, of course, to compensate cost increases through price increases. The competitiveness of the market environment sometimes makes this difficult.
Speaker #1: I think in Turkey, and that was where we mentioned price increases, we are quite confident that price increases will help us improve our margins substantially in the second half of the year.
Speaker #1: In Eastern Europe, I think we do not yet have substantial clarity to provide very clear guidance at this point in time. And then I think the final question was on the Asian parcel volumes outlook.
Speaker #1: I think I have already talked a lot about that, so there is a little more clarity, as visibility is still low. Please bear with us: for the third parcel levy that comes in November, we don't even know how it will work.
Speaker #1: So it's hard to project the impact on parcel volumes, but overall, we think that, you know, again, let me remind you—the exposure of our group to Asian customers is around 10% of our volume.
Speaker #1: So, this is not nothing, but it's 10% and not more. And we think that the 30% decline that we've seen in July is already the bottom, and it should become better after that, because the second fee on Asian parcels across the group will only come in November.
Speaker #1: It will be €2 or less than that. And we think by then, a lot of customers on Asian platforms will already have adjusted their business model.
Speaker #5: I think there was another question on Serbia. So, we signed the acquisition, but we are still waiting for merger control clearance. Therefore, we cannot name the effect on our results in 2026.
Speaker #5: On the other hand, this acquisition will, of course, strengthen our position there.
Speaker #4: Okay, perfect. Thank you very much, and all the best for the second half of the year.
Speaker #5: Thank you.
Speaker #2: Thank you very much for your questions. The next participant is Henk Slotboom. Mr. Slotboom, you should be able to unmute yourself, switch on your microphone, and ask your question, please.
Speaker #2: Mr. Slotboom, you're still muted. Yes, now we can hear you, but it's very, very difficult. Please go on. So, it seems not to be possible to listen to Mr. Slotboom.
Speaker #6: Yeah. Is this better?
Speaker #2: No, we can hear you clearly. Yes, thank you very much.
Speaker #6: Okay, perfect. First, as a clarification question— I heard you talking about the fulfillment business. Am I right to understand that you see it as part of the parcels business and not as a potential future 3PL division?
Speaker #6: Let me put it in those phrases as a segregated business. So, more in the sense of, yeah, call it—I would almost say an end-to-end solution, but that's not the right expression.
Speaker #6: The second one is, you also mentioned that you saw increased activity from the Chinese marketplaces building their own or renting their own warehousing in the countries where you are active.
Speaker #6: In some countries, we already see that they are taking the next steps. Look at Joy Buy, for example; they've taken the last-mile delivery with Joy Express into their own hands.
Speaker #6: We see the same with Ciro and Gofo. How do you look at that? Is the arrival of the Chinese in the mid mile a prelude for more competition from the Chinese on the last mile as well?
Speaker #5: Let me start with the first question on the fulfillment business. We are very new in this business, and maybe in the coming years it might become a new segment, but for the time being, it will stay within e-commerce and logistics.
Speaker #1: Yeah, I think the question was also: Is our plan to operate operationally to integrate that with the last mile carriers? I think the answer is no.
Speaker #1: I think we the value proposition is to be the integrator and to offer the best last mile solution for a given country. And we don't want to weaken that value proposition by a too strong integration with our carrier networks in Eastern Europe.
Speaker #1: And we see it let me put it maybe in some other sense also some kind of hedge with increasing competitive intensity some of the margin shifts from the carrier networks to a level up to the buyers of last mile services.
Speaker #1: And if you're on the buyer side, you benefit from lower prices, which we see with EU shipments. Yeah. So the answer is no immediate integration, and I think in terms of size, this is still far from an own division.
Speaker #2: Okay.
Speaker #1: On Chinese competition—yeah, I think we have to expect everything from Chinese competitors. They certainly do have an ambition to cover additional value chain elements, and last mile is an obvious one.
Speaker #1: But you know these markets are already quite competitive competitive and again the share the customer share of Chinese e-commerce platforms is limited. So we have limited exposure to Chinese e-commerce platforms and our intention to strongly increase that is limited.
Speaker #2: Okay. Very clear.
Speaker #6: Thank you.
Speaker #2: Well thank you very much and we have one last remaining participant with a question. Mr. Steiner you should be able to unmute yourself and ask your question.
Speaker #2: Mr. Steiner we still can't hear you. You are dialed in by phone so please dial a star six to unmute yourself. That seems not to be possible for Mr. Steiner to join unfortunately.
Speaker #2: We have no more received questions and therefore I hand back to Harald Hagenauer.
Speaker #7: Yeah. So thanks ladies and gentlemen. For participating in our call on a Friday afternoon. And we hope to that all your questions could be answered.
Speaker #7: If not if it's not possible wasn't possible for acoustically or so please send us an email or call us the next days and we can come back of course.
Speaker #7: Thank you very much. Goodbye.
