Shares in Belgian postal service Bpost lost over fifth of their value at the opening of the Brussels stock exchange on the back of bleak annual financial results posted on Friday morning.
By 09:40 on Friday, the company's share value fell by 22.12% to as low as €1.60 per share before rebounding slightly to €1.63 by 10:30.
Bpost announced to its shareholders on Friday morning that its board of directors will propose not paying a dividend this year during its annual general meeting in May.
The company announced a negative annual profit of over €209 million due to a write-down in the value of the American subsidiary of its e-commerce fulfilment business Radial.
This marks the second year of poor financial results for Belgium's main postal service. Last year, dividends amounted to just €0.13 per share, down from €0.40 in 2022.
The operations of the Belgian postal service were significantly disrupted this year as a result of long-running strikes by postal unions in Wallonia and Brussels over the reorganisation of postal rounds. Hundreds of thousands of parcels faced significant delays as a result of the industrial action.
In the third quarter of 2024, Bpost's profits were slashed by more than half as the result of a loss of valuable newspaper delivery contracts, following the government's suspension of subsidies for deliveries.
