Mail company TNT is considering either a stock exchange listing or a partnership for its mail unit, the company said on Thursday ahead of a shareholders meeting.

TNT is to look for partners to strengthen its position in Italy, Germany and Britain over the next few months, the Financieele Dagblad quoted TNT chief executive Peter Bakker as saying.
Another option is a partial or total IPO for the mail unit. Analysts have put the value of the postal operations at over €3bn.
TNT has come under pressure from activist shareholders in recent weeks who want to separate the express and mail units.

Split off
Bakker told news agency Reuters said the move to carve out the mail unit, a preparatory step for an equity sale, was not due to shareholder activism.
‘From my vantage point there is no shareholder pressure. There are of course shareholders who have made their views known,’ Bakker told reporters on a conference call. ‘Structurally post is in decline and that poses challenges.’
Bakker said the separation of the mail unit from the group could be completed this year, but any process for a partnership or an IPO would take more time.
Update
TNT also published a trading update on Thursday, highlighting the pressure the postal division is under. 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.
However, TNT said more working days, lower pension costs and significantly better performance from its mail and parcels operations outside the Netherlands would boost the overall results