Deutsche Post Annual Report 2008 - 15 Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses

15 Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses


€m
	2007 restated¹⁾	2008
Amortisation of intangible assets, excluding the impairment of goodwill	509	826
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment
Land and buildings	487	203
Technical equipment and machinery	498	338
Other equipment, operating and office equipment, vehicle fleet	568	480
Aircraft	126	202
Advance payments	6	3
	1,685	1,226
Depreciation/amortisation of other non-current assets	2	0
	2,196	2,052
Impairment of goodwill	0	610
Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses	2,196	2,662

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses include expenses of €144 million relating to restructuring and reorganisation measures within the Group.

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses include €213 million (previous year: €612 million) in respect of write-downs. Of that amount, €79 million relates to intangible assets (previous year: €97 million) and €9 million to land and buildings (previous year: €253 million), whilst €125 million relates to the remaining property, plant and equipment (previous year: €262 million).

In addition, the Exel brand name was fully written down in financial year 2008 in the amount of €382 million since the use of the brand was discontinued.

Impairment of goodwill amounting to €436 million related to the goodwill of Supply Chain, whilst €174 million related to CIS. Further details can be found in Note 3.

At segment level, the amounts of impairment losses on non-current assets (excluding impairment of goodwill) were as follows:


€m
	2007	2008
MAIL	3	4
EXPRESS	596	125
GLOBAL FORWARDING/FREIGHT	0	0
SUPPLY CHAIN/CIS	13	19
Corporate Center/Other	0	65
Write-downs	612	213

In the Americas region of the EXPRESS Division in the previous year, intangible assets (excluding goodwill) were written down fully in the amount of €90 million whilst items of property, plant and equipment were written down by €504 million to their fair value less costs to sell.

As at 1 July 2008, accompanying the division of the Express Americas CGU into the International Americas CGU and the US Express CGU, impairment losses were no longer recognised for the Express Americas CGU as a whole and continued to be recognised only for the US Express CGU. The reason for this was the decision by management, after considering the restructuring options, to treat the US Express region and the International Americas region differently. Business operations would be restructured only in the USA, on the basis of differentiation between domestic business products and international business products. As a result of this decision, impairment losses were no longer recognised in respect of the International Americas CGU. Impairment losses amounting to €81 million were recognised for non-current assets in the year under review in respect of the US Express CGU.