TNT Express too expensive, says FedEx

FedEx Corp chief financial officer Alan Graf called a potential acquisition of TNT NV's express business "too expensive" and reiterated that FedEx doesn't need to do a deal in Europe, reported Dow Jones Newswires.


"We look at a lot of things all the time," Graf said in response to a question at a J.P. Morgan conference in New York that FedEx periodically assesses acquisition opportunities in Europe and elsewhere.


As for Dutch postal and express group TNT, "it's got more than a strategic [price] premium in it already," Graf said.


TNT is in the process of separating its mail and express businesses, which it has said would make the express unit easier to sell if it receives a good price. Both FedEx and rival United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) have been persistently cited as possible buyers.


UPS hasn't commented. FedEx declined in the past to comment extensively on TNT, but chief executive Fred Smith exhibited some passing interest in its express business in September, when he said FedEx would possibly "get under the hood" and take a look at it if it were decisively for sale.


Still, Smith stressed at the time that FedEx didn't have any strategic imperative to make a deal in Europe, and Graf hewed to that line.


"We have our own organic plans" for growth in certain key European countries, Graf said. "We don't have to make any acquisitions there."
(Source:http://www.cargonewsasia.com)