The Group continued to grow in 2007. At €3.76 billion, profit from operating activities (EBIT) before non-recurring effects coincided with our forecast of about €3.7 billion. After adjustment for non-recurring effects, EBIT was €3.2 billion. Revenue rose 4.9% to €63.5 billion. The main drivers of this increase were the LOGISTICS Division, which took over the procurement logistics function for the UK National Health Service, and the FINANCIAL SERVICES Division, which raised its revenue on the back of dynamic development in Postbank’s new customer business.

In the MAIL Division, we recorded EBIT of €2,003 million, comfortably reaching our target figure of around €2 billion. Falling revenue in the domestic mail business was offset by the other business units.

Earnings in the EXPRESS Division were negatively affected by impairment losses of €594 million recorded on non-current assets in the Americas region and came to €–174 million. Adjusted for this effect, the division would have returned EBIT of €420 million, slightly in excess of the minimum €400 million forecast. This figure already includes the construction expenditure for the new European hub in Leipzig.

The LOGISTICS Division exceeded expectations, generating EBIT of €957 million. Adjusted for the non-recurring income of €59 million from the disposal of Vfw AG, this was an improvement of 19.6%. DHL Exel Supply Chain played a decisive role in this development.

For the FINANCIAL SERVICES Division, we had forecast a 5% increase in EBIT. Thanks to the outstanding performance of Postbank, EBIT in fact rose by 7.2% to €1,076 million.

The SERVICES Division generated EBIT of €–660 million (previous year: €–229 million). This decrease is due to one-time factors recognised in the previous year, including the redemption of the exchangeable bond on Postbank shares (€276 million), the sale of McPaper AG (€10 million) and the positive outcome of arbitration proceedings against Deutsche Telekom (€89 million, net).