FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - Deutsche Post <DPWGn.DE> on Tuesday said it sees a further improvement in earnings in the second half of 2019 due to restructuring measures and a rise in German postage prices despite a tough economic environment.
The German post and logistics group reported a 3% rise in second-quarter sales to 15.5 billion euros (£14.3 billion)) while operating profit came in at 769 million euros, up 2.9%, ahead of an average analyst forecast for 727 million.
The company, which is partly state-owned, said steps taken to improve productivity and an increase in the German postage rate from July 1 would help in the second half of the year, despite a "challenging macroeconomic environment."
German regulators have agreed that Deutsche Post could increase prices by 10.63% in return for the company pledging to hire an extra 5,000 delivery workers.
Deutsche Post said full-year operating profit should rise between 4.0 and 4.3 billion euros, up from a previous estimate of between 3.9 billion and 4.3 billion euros, and confirmed its guidance for the metric to now reach more than 5 billion euros in 2020.
United Parcel Service Inc <UPS.N> said last month a jump in demand for its Next Day Air service drove better-than-expected profit in the second quarter as large retailers rushed packages to online shoppers.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert and Emma Thomasson; Editing by Michelle Martin)
