Bpost to be floated on stock exchange

Belgian postal operator bpost today announced that it would list a minority stake, currently held by private equity group CVC Funds, on the Brussels stock exchange, Reuters reports. The Belgian state will continue to hold a 50.01% stake in the former monopoly and will not sell shares in the offering, bpost said. Belgium also owns a majority stake in telecoms operator Belgacom, which is also listed on the Brussels stock exchange. Bpost, which did not indicate when the initial public offering (IPO) would take place, said it planned to return at least 85% of its annual net profit to shareholders. The group made an operating profit of €404 million last year, on revenue of €2.42 billion. Bpost said that JP Morgan, Nomura and BNP Paribas Fortis would act as joint coordinators of the IPO.