TNT, the Dutch post and express mail company, reported a sharp fall in first-quarter profit yesterday, mostly due to the sale of operations in the same period a year ago.
The company said net profit fell 57 percent to 179 million euros (US$280 million) from 427 million euros, while sales rose 1.8 percent to 2.72 billion euros.
Last year, TNT booked a 195-million-euro profit after selling its freight management division to Geodis of France.
TNT said it also suffered from having significantly fewer working days in the first quarter than a year ago, in part because of an early Easter, which came in March this year.
TNT repeated its financial targets for 2008 of double-digit sales growth in its low-margin express division and slight growth in its high-margin mail division.