The Dutch post office, PostNL, has rejected a takeover bid from the Belgian post office, bpost, setting out five reasons including the fact that it would become controlled by the Belgian state.
It said that following completion of the proposed offer, the ownership of the Belgian State in bpost would decline from 51 per cent to around 40 per cent. This ownership, combined with the proposed governance structure at bpost and PostNL level, the dependency of bpost on the SGEI management contracts and the grandfathering of statutory employees would result in a combined entity that is de-facto still controlled by the Belgian State.
PostNL also said the offer price did not represent a sufficiently compelling value proposition for PostNL’s shareholders.
The proposed offer of € 2.825 in cash and 0.1202 bpost share per PostNL share failed to reflect the improving performance, stand alone prospects and the strategic value of the state-of-the-art parcel & postal network of PostNL.
