22% Plunge in Bpost Shares After Second Profit Warning

Bpost’s parent company, Bnode, saw its share price plunge by more than a fifth on Friday, November 6, closing around 89 cents and slipping into the ranks of so-called penny stocks, Nieuwsblad reported. The drop came after the company issued its second profit warning of the year — the second in three months, De Tijd reported.

The listed postal and parcel operator now expects full-year adjusted operating profit before financing and exceptional costs of between €95 million and €105 million, Nieuwsblad reported. That is nearly half of the forecast issued at the start of the year, and well below the €140 million to which the target had already been cut after a strike by staff earlier this spring.

Adjusted net loss of €30 million in first nine months

In the first nine months of the year, Bnode booked an adjusted operating profit of €41.4 million, Nieuwsblad reported. The company slipped heavily into the red, posting an adjusted net loss of €30 million — or €50.6 million once strike costs and other items were included.

Chris Peeters, who has led Bnode since November 2023, succeeding interim CEO Philippe Dartienne, said: “We are not at all happy with these results.” Dartienne is now the company’s chief financial officer.

Revenue falling twice as fast as costs

Nieuwsblad identified the core problem: Bnode’s revenue is dropping almost twice as fast as its costs. The company, best known in Belgium as the listed state-linked business that distributes letters and parcels, lacks entrepreneurial drive, with too few commercial initiatives being developed, the outlet reported.

Peeters blamed part of the shortfall on the €3 levy on parcels from China. Volumes from China have fallen by more than 40%, he told Nieuwsblad: “Those volumes — think carnival items and party products — are gone from the e-commerce market. Are they with Action now? We don’t see them in any case.”

Peeters calls for a “hunter mentality”

Peeters also attributed the lack of commercial dynamism to the strike. “We need to get more of a hunter mentality,” he said, according to Nieuwsblad. De Tijd reported that Peeters nonetheless stood by his strategy of filling the parcel bag with new services as the right one — while acknowledging the open question hanging over the company: “Is the transformation coming too late? Good question.”

What the Bnode profit warning means for investors

Nieuwsblad reported a drop of 22% on Friday, November 6, taking the stock to around 89 cents — a level at which it joins “penny stocks,” shares that trade for only cents and that often attract mainly speculators. Two profit warnings in a single year have driven investor confidence far away.

The full-year adjusted operating profit target now stands at €95–105 million, Nieuwsblad reported, down from €140 million after the spring strike and from a much higher original forecast at the start of the year — nearly a halving overall.

Chris Peeters, in the job since November 2023, is holding to the strategy of growing the parcel business with new services, while calling for more commercial initiative and a “hunter mentality” inside the company, Nieuwsblad reported.

The unresolved question is whether that turnaround can arrive before the shrinking letter business drags the company further down — a question De Tijd put directly to the chief executive, who answered only that it was a good question.