Deutsche Post to sell US unit, shares rise by 5.9 percent

By Margarita Snegireva. Europe's biggest mail carrier Deutsche Post AG rose as much as 5.9 percent in German trading after Financial Times Deutschland said it may sell the unprofitable U.S. package and express delivery unit to FedEx Corp.

Photo: Deutsche Post to sell US unit, shares rise by 5.9 percent

Deutsche Post shares advanced as much as 1.27 euros to 22.70 euros and were 3.8 percent higher at 9:38 a.m. in Frankfurt.

Deutsche Post AG is a German postal, logistics and courier company, successor to the former German state-owned mail monopoly. With its headquarters in Bonn, the corporation has 520,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide and generated revenue of € 60.5 billion ($ 80.65 billion) in 2006. Today Deutsche Post AG, operating under the tradename "Deutsche Post World Net", is the world's largest logistics company.

Deutsche Post acquired Airborne Express in August 2003 and integrated it into DHL, which is now known as DHL Express.

On 20 September 2005 the company announced that British logistics company Exel had agreed on a £3.7 billion (€5.5 billion) takeover. The combined revenue of the two companies was €50 billion over 2004.

In 2006 DHL GlobalMail UK merged with Mercury International.