Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Mar 16, 2012 9:40AM EDT
United Parcel Service on Friday said it remains in “constructive” talks to take over TNT Express and plans to submit a formal offer for Europe’s second-largest package delivery company by May 11 at the latest.
TNT Express spurned an informal 9-euro-per-share ($11.70) offer on Feb. 17 that valued the Dutch company at approximately $6.4 billion. The offer was more than 40 percent above TNT's stock value at the time.
The negotiations reportedly focus more on the possible disposal of TNT businesses to win European Union antitrust approval and on resulting job losses rather than price.
Atlanta-based UPS is unlikely to substantially increase its offer price because TNT Express posted a $225 million net loss for the fourth quarter of 2011 and a potential counterbid from FedEx Corp has failed to materialize.
TNT accounted for 9.6 percent of Europe’s express package market in 2010 and UPS had a 7.7 percent share, according to Transport Intelligence. DHL Express controlled 17.6 percent of the market while FedEx had 3.3 percent.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
