The performance in the first quarter of 2018 has resulted in consolidated operating profit of €703 million, an increase of 33.7% compared with the same period of the previous year (€526 million). This primarily reflects the positive performance recorded by Financial Services and reductions in operating costs and personnel expenses.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT OR LOSS
| Three months ended 31 March | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results of operations (€m) | 2018 | 2017 | Increase/(decrease) | |
| Total revenue | 2,884 | 2,833 | 51 | 1.8% |
| of which: | ||||
| Mail, Parcels and Distribution | 898 | 914 | (16) | -1.8% |
| Payments, Mobile and Digital |
143 |
130 | 13 | 10.0% |
| Financial Services | 1,519 | 1,462 | 57 | 3.9% |
| Insurance Services | 324 | 327 | (3) | -0.9% |
| Total costs | 2,049 | 2,165 | (116) | -5.4% |
| of which: | ||||
| Total personnel expenses | 1,430 | 1,480 | (50) | -3.4% |
| of which personnel expenses | 1,424 | 1,478 | (54) | -3.7% |
| of which early retirement incentives | 6 | 2 | 4 | n/s |
| sOther operating costs | 619 | 685 | (66) | -9.6% |
| EBITDA | 835 | 668 | 167 | 25.0% |
| Depreciation, amortisation and impairments | 132 | 142 | (10) | -7.0% |
| EBIT | 703 | 526 | 177 | 33.7% |
| EBIT Margin | 24.4% | 18.6% | 5.8% | |
| Finance income/(costs) | 8 | 6 | 2 | 33.3% |
| Profit before tax | 711 | 532 | 179 | 33.6% |
| Income tax expense | 226 | 181 | 45 | 24.9% |
| Profit for the year | 485 | 351 | 134 | 38.2% |
| Earnings per share | 0.372 | 0.269 | 0.10 | 38.2% |
n/s: not significant
GROUP - TOTAL REVENUE BY OPERATING SEGMENT
(DATA IN MILLION EURO)
The Group’s total revenue amounts to €2.9 billion, an increase of €51 million (1.8%) compared with the same period of the previous year.
- Mail, Parcels and Distribution services: total revenue amounts to €898 million, a reduction of 1.8% compared with the first quarter of 2017. This is due to a decrease in traditional letter post, with the number of items falling from 838 million in 2017 to 813 million (a decline of 3.0%). Parcel revenue, on the other hand, continued to grow, with volumes rising 5.4% from 27.6 million items in the first quarter of 2017 to 29.1 million.
- Payments, Mobile and Digital services: segment contributed €143 million to total revenue, up 10% on the first quarter of 2017. This figure includes revenue from payment services, e-money products and PosteMobile SpA’s telecommunications services.
- Financial Services: total revenue is up from €1,462 million in the first quarter of 2017 to €1,519 million, marking an increase of 3.9% and reflecting the positive performance of the management of Postal Savings. Moreover, the figure for the comparative period included revenue from the investment in Banca del Mezzogiorno–MCC, amounting to approximately €25 million.
- Insurance Services: this segment contributed €324 million to total revenue (€327 million in the same period of the previous year), reflecting a slowdown in the life business, where premium revenue is down from €5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2017 to €5.3 billion. In contrast, the non-life business performed well, with net premium revenue of €28 million, compared with €25 million in the first quarter of 2017.