Capital expenditure down in the first quarter

The Group’s aggregate capital expenditure (capex) totalled €195 million as at the end of March 2010, which is a 19.1% decrease compared with the first quarter of the previous year (€241 million). The main contributors to the decline in capex were the EXPRESS, SUPPLY CHAIN and Corporate Center/Other divisions. Funds were used mainly to replace and expand assets as follows: €165 million was invested in property, plant and equipment, and €30 million in intangible assets excluding goodwill. Investments in property, plant and equipment related mainly to advance payments and assets under development (€63 million), technical equipment and machinery (€47 million), IT equipment (€15 million), transport equipment (€12 million), advance payments and intangible assets under development (€12 million), and aircraft (€11 million).

Our regional investments focused mainly on Europe and the Americas. In Europe, investments were centred on Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden, in the Americas we concentrated on the US.