Capital expenditure fell considerably below the prior-year level

The Group’s capital expenditure (capex) amounted to €1,727 million at the end of December 2008 (previous year: €2,070 million). Of this figure, €1,419 million was attributable to investments in property, plant and equipment and €308 million to intangible assets excluding goodwill. We fell significantly below the prior-year level with a decline of 16.6%. The decrease was most evident in the fourth quarter (–39.8%). Investments in property, plant and equipment related mainly to advanced payments and assets under development (€445 million), transport equipment (€255 million), technical equipment and machinery (€231 million), IT equipment (€148 million) and other operating and office equipment (€107 million).

Our regional investments focused mainly on Europe, the Americas and Asia. In Europe, our investment activities were centred in Germany, the UK and Belgium. In Asia, the focus was on India, Singapore and South Korea. 

Capex and depreciation, full year
€m
	MAIL		EXPRESS		FORWARD- ING/ FREIGHT		SUPPLY CHAIN/ CIS		Corporate Center/ Other		Continuing operations		Discontinued operations
	2007	2008	2007	2008	2007	2008	2007	20081)	2007	2008	2007	2008	2007	2008
Capex	325	282	721	727	69	94	496	390	459	234	2,070	1,727	140	71
Depre- ciation on as- sets	447	346	1,034	542	98	105	363	1,345	254	324	2,196	2,662	161	179
Capex vs. de- preciation ratio	0.73	0.82	0.70	1.34	0.70	0.90	1.37	0.29	1,81	0,72	0.94	0.65	0.87	0.40

Capex and depreciation, Q4
€m
	MAIL		EXPRESS		FORWARD- ING/ FREIGHT		SUPPLY CHAIN/ CIS		Corporate Center/ Other		Continuing operations		Discontinued operations
	2007	2008	2007	2008	2007	2008	2007	20081)	2007	2008	2007	2008	2007	2008
Capex	129	113	236	195	22	29	168	104	301	74	856	515	76	11
Depre- ciation on as- sets	124	93	705	208	25	30	88	1,101	67	130	1,009	1,562	46	80
Capex vs. de- preciation ratio	1.04	1.22	0.33	0.94	0.88	0.97	1.91	0.09	4.49	0.57	0.85	0.33	1.65	0.14

MAIL invests in quality

Capital expenditure in the MAIL Division decreased from €325 million to €282 million. These investments related in particular to internally generated intangible assets (€106 million), other operating and office equipment (€61 million), IT equipment (€40 million) and technical equipment and machinery (€39 million).

In the domestic mail business, most of our purchases were of machinery and equipment for processing standard and compact letters and flat mail more efficiently. We also replaced internally generated software and licences as well as transport equipment.

In the domestic parcel business, technical equipment and IT were upgraded and the number of Packstations was increased by 500 to around 1,400 Packstations. This allows customers to post and collect parcels around the clock. We have also established a new type of automatic station, Post 24/7, at 55 locations in Berlin and Bonn. Post 24/7 stations offer a wide range of features such as Packstations, Paketboxes, mailboxes, stamp vending machines and, in some cases, cash dispensers and bank account statement printers.

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