The SA Post Office said on Tuesday its banking unit will become a separate company. Postbank would be “corporatised” in 2010 as a stand-alone company within the Sapo group.
This was so that Postbank could be better positioned “to provide a wider range of accessible, relevant and affordable financial services products to the unbanked and under serviced citizens of the country”, the Post Office said in a statement.
According to the Post Office, Postbank was already one of the most widely used service points for Mzansi account holders with some 2m Mzansi accounts — a 50% share of the market.
Earlier, the Post Office released its results for the year ended March 2009, stating that the highlight of the financial year was the 14% surge in Postbank deposits to R3,3bn. During the year under review, the Post Office maintained its unbroken six-year record of profitable trading by producing a R488m pre-tax profit, it said.
Though profits declined slightly as a consequence of the depressed economy and the drop in postal volumes, the results showed the Post Office had “continued to deliver steadily improving trading profits since its turnaround in 2004”.
The year saw a 5,8% decline in mail volumes, the first in seven years, it said. “However, to counter the adverse conditions in the trading environment during the past financial year, the Post Office embarked on a strategy of tighter cost controls and improving efficiencies across all its operations as well as exploring potential new revenue streams,” it said.
CEO Motshoanetsi Lefoka said revenues for the 2009 financial year were up 8% on the previous year to a total of R6bn. “However, profit before tax declined 14 percent on the previous year — from R565m to R488m — as a result of higher input costs, especially fuel and salary costs.”
Operating expenses were up 10%, reflecting the Post Office’s higher cost operating environment. As a result, the profit margin declined two percentage points, from 10,1% to 8,1%. — Sapa
