By F. Zois
The placement of Greece’s state-run Post Office (EL.TA) under the umbrella of the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations S.A., itself a memorandum-mandated obligation, essentially means stepped up efforts to restructure the loss-making postal service.
One prospect directly on the table is a reduction in EL.TA’s payroll through a voluntary retirement scheme, although annual losses are still forecast amid ever-increasing competition from private carriers.
At the same time, EL.TA unionists claim that the ultimate aim by the government is to intentionally depreciate the postal service in order to place it on the sale block for a fraction of its value.
Arrears owed to EL.TA by other state entities and a pending compensation package worth 45 million euros continued to burden the latter’s results.
Specifically, over the first nine months of 2017, EL.TA’s revenues fell in terms of its traditional mail delivery services, dropping by 8.3 percent from the corresponding period of 2016, or 1.2 million euros in absolute terms.
Indicative is the fact that EL.TA lost a major client in September 2016, the greater Athens area’s water and sewage utility (EYDAP), which meant a loss of 460,000 euros on a monthly basis.
