Further clear drop in capital expenditure

The Group’s aggregate capital expenditure (capex) amounted to €478 million in the period to 30 June 2009 (previous year: €768 million). Of this figure, €382 million was attributable to property, plant and equipment and €96 million to intangible assets excluding goodwill. We continued to make clear reductions in capital expenditure in the second quarter, generating a total drop of 44% compared with the prior-year period. In the first half of the year capex fell by 38%. Once again, the EXPRESS and SUPPLY CHAIN divisions were the main contributors to this trend. Investments in property, plant and equipment related mainly to advance payments and assets under development (€109 million), IT equipment (€75 million), technical equipment and machinery (€67 million), other operating and office equipment (€41 million), transport equipment (€34 million) and leasehold improvements (€26 million).

Our regional investments focused mainly on Europe, the Americas and Asia. In Europe, our investment activities were centred on Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. In Asia, we concentrated on Malaysia, India and China.

Investments in the MAIL Division increased from €82 million to €117 million. This was due, amongst other things, to projects planned for 2008 being deferred to the current financial year. The second quarter of 2009 mainly saw the continuation of projects that had been started in the previous year and the first quarter: We acquired mail sorting machines, upgraded IT, replaced transport equipment, installed 200 additional Packstations and reorganised the retail outlet network.

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