In the first nine months, revenue in the EXPRESS Division rose by 2.4% to €10,355 million (previous year: €10,117 million). Since more than half of this was generated in countries outside the euro zone, however, currency effects decreased revenue by €626 million. Measured in local currencies, we attained revenue growth of 6.9%, primarily due to price increases resulting from higher fuel prices. In a tough economic environment, we succeeded in maintaining daily shipment volumes in the Time Definite International product line at the previous years level. The Time Definite Domestic product line again performed well in our other regions outside the US. However, this could not completely make up for the downward trend of our activities in the US market.

In Europe, revenue increased by 4.9% to €4,998 million (previous year: €4,765 million). The total contains negative currency effects in the amount of €96 million, attributable chiefly to our UK business. The underlying organic growth for the region was 4.1%. The new EU member states as well as France, the Benelux countries, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries experienced good organic growth in the first nine months of 2008.

Negative currency effects (€321 million) continued to have an impact on our revenue in the Americas region, which slipped by 9.0%, from €3,129 million in the previous year to €2,847 million. Revenue increased by 1.2% in local currencies. Business in Latin America once again was encouraging. In the United States, revenue declined in organic terms in a year-on-year comparison. The decrease was primarily attributable to lower shipment volumes in the Time Definite Domestic product line. The good performance of our other major US products could not fully offset this negative trend.

In the Asia Pacific and EEMEA (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) regions, revenue increased organically by 12.4% and 25.4% respectively. Once again, we achieved the highest growth rates in Russia and the Middle East. The Asia Pacific region also experienced renewed strong growth. Negative currency effects reduced revenue in these regions by €212 million but were eliminated in the calculation of organic revenue growth.

Profit from operating activities (EBIT) fell by €115 million in the first nine months, from €165 million in the prior-year period to €50 million. Third-quarter EBIT dropped from €69 million to €–2 million. As in the first two quarters, this decline reflected the sharp downturn in economic growth in the US. The slowdown in the US fuelled the shift from high-margin domestic time-definite to day-definite business, which prompted higher losses in the Americas region. Moreover, the realignment of the US express business added €86 million to our costs. The trend in the other regions is satisfactory even though we are feeling the effects of the softer economy. Impacted by the sharp decline in earnings in the United States, return on sales decreased year-on-year by 1.1 percentage points to 0.5%. Operating cash flow decreased to €155 million in the first nine months (previous year: €612 million).