British private equity group CVC is in talks with TNT about a partial takeover of its postal operations, the Financieele Dagblad reported at the weekend.

The paper claims company sources say CVC is after a ‘substantial stake’ in the former state-owned company, which could be worth up to €1.5bn.
In April, the company said it is considering either a stock exchange listing or a partnership for its mail unit.
Competition
The Dutch postal market has been fully open to competition since April 2009 and the company has lost a considerable amount of bulk contracts to budget competitors such as Sandd.
Over the first three months of this year, the amount of mail delivered fell up to 9% on the same period last year.

Logical

The FD says CVC would be a logical partner because it already has interests in other European postal companies including Belgium’s Bpost, and Post Danmark.
In the Netherlands, the company owns the Schuitema supermarket group, sweet company Leaf, waste processor Van Gansewinkel and packaging firm Smurfit Kappa.