PostNL N.V. (PNL) Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the PostNL Half Year 2026 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] Now I would like to hand over the conference call to Ms. Inge Laudy, Manager, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, madam.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to you all. We have published our results over the first half of '26 this morning. With me in the room are Pim Berendsen, our CEO; and Linde Jansen, our CFO. I will guide you through a short presentation to explain the results, and we'll then take your questions.

Thank you, Inge, and good morning to all of you. Thanks for joining this half year results update. I'll start with talking you through some key takeaways and then some strategy slides, and Linda will then take over to go in more depth towards the financial performance. So on Slide 5, the highlights, resilient performance in challenging markets, revenue numbers of EUR 1.6 billion, closely and almost in line with last year, slightly improved normalized EBIT, significantly improved free cash flow. And what is important strategically is that we see the volume to value strategy gaining traction and that, for instance, also can be seen in the average price per parcel that is up with 5%. We consistently see higher growth in European e-commerce activities and obviously declining volumes from Asian web shops predominantly also influenced by the introduction of the custom duties as per January -- July 1 of this year. Crucial step has been the successful implementation of the shift of standard mail to standard mail delivery within 2 days. We obviously prepared for that change for the last 6 to 9 months, a huge effort for all the people involved both in the Mail segment as well in the e-commerce segment, and that implementation has gone very well indeed. So we have confirmed our 2026 outlook. And basically, there's 2 additions to the strategy or attention points that are noteworthy. We have launched an initiative that will bring us EUR 75 million of additional cost savings, mainly in e-commerce as an answer to the slightly unfavorable market circumstances in the e-commerce domain. And those savings are aimed to reduce the cost price per parcel, which allows us a bit more room on the commercial side of things to optimize the volume to value strategy in the e-commerce segment. And the second point is that we have completely redefined our out-of-home strategy to strengthen the long-term competitive position on the out-of-home domain as well. On the nonfinancial KPIs, good progress has been made on the share of emission-free last-mile delivery from 32% to 39%. We've maintained our average #1 position in relevant markets in terms of NPS and an improvement of absenteeism that still needs to come down a bit more, but at least it's trending in the right direction. So all in all, a resilient performance in challenging markets. If we then move to Slide 6, 7 or 6 or 8, I should say, just to summarize the key elements of the strategy before we dive into those segments. As you know, we've presented this strategy in September in our Capital Markets Day. At the very top, you find our purpose, connected to deliver all forward. And that is basically what holds everything together. Just below our strategic intent, we grow our business, create sustainable value, lead through innovation and make impact that matters. And that is basically the lens through which we make our choices. Then one step down, we translate this into ambitions for our 3 business segments. For e-commerce, it's about shifting from value -- volume to value through a differentiated approach and smarter network utilization. For platforms, it's all about capturing international growth asset-light models for mail, it's really transforming towards a future-proof mail service. We make those transitions by strategic portfolio priorities through which we manage the transition that we're looking for and that leads to 4 concrete objectives on financial KPIs, NPS, carbon efficiency and employee engagement. So that's basically the North Star that guides all our decisions. If we then go to e-commerce on Slide 8, we clearly have been executing on the volume strategy in intensifying external challenge surroundings. Geopolitical uncertainty has impacted consumer spending, bringing down confidence of consumers down that has also ended up with market growth below our earlier expectations. Furthermore, we see intensifying competition from new market entrants that quite often are tied or somehow related to the Asian platforms. And of course, there's a shift in market dynamics followed by the introduction of the import duty and handling fees for July 1 and still a bit to come by November 1. At the same time, in terms of execution on our strategy, we're happy with the progress we're making, much more sharper customer segmentation, more differentiated propositions and better and more disciplined volume steering have led to better utilization of networks and margin improvements there. So those yield measures are gaining traction. momentum protects profitability even though we look at lower volumes than last year and also slightly lower than we anticipated in the beginning of the year, but we managed to compensate that by the measures we just discussed. Important from a competitive position is that we keep our high NPS scores as being the #1 for both receiving and sending e-commerce clients. And as said, we have introduced a program that will lead to EUR 75 million of additional cost savings for '27 and '28. So on Slide 9, we follow up with clear progress monetizing capacity by optimizing customer mix and product mix. Contract renewals have been secured that bring a better balance between volume and margin development. Important negotiations predominantly also in relation to Asian operations have been concluded in the second quarter. And I think you can see in the half year results that kind of capacity management and more operational steering also on best day and network utilization have improved operational efficiency. The expected cost savings for '26 are according to plan. We aim to get EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million halfway through the year '24. And of course, we want to maintain to be distinctive where it matters. And that's also why we offer smart delivery suggestions in checkout and focus on best day delivery as well. Then on TEN, it's in more detail the kind of the protective measures that strengthen our competitive position going forward, and that will be there to support the path towards our breakthrough 2028 ambitions in a market which is significantly challenging and competitive positions are intensifying. That's why we've launched the cost savings program. And I think the prerequisites to be able to do so now, we've worked on over the last year or so, and that will allow us now to further simplify the e-commerce organization to even focus more in operational processes to take out costs. A few examples maybe artificial intelligence technology allows us now even a better fill rate of raw cages that, of course, limits the transport capacity that you need, better planning and collection also takes out routes. Those are examples of areas where we can take cost out next to procurement initiatives around big spend categories like IT will contribute to the EUR 75 million of savings, which will bring the total cost savings to EUR 170 million to EUR 180 million for this period. And of course, in that market space where it is quite challenging, being able to reduce the cost price per parcel is important and creates a bit more flexibility in that market to make the right choices in terms of volume versus value. That's obviously helped by a reduction in the cost price per parcel. And that's why we've launched this additional EUR 75 million of cost savings initiatives. On the other hand, we have fundamentally revisited and redefined our out-of-home strategy. It is increasingly an important differentiator in the e-commerce space. And we really have changed it completely by taking a different view on the role of out-of-home, having a different proposition in terms of how the network setup should be, how UX/CX needs to be and also will require a step-up in the number of parcel lockers to 7,500 by 2031. So it's really an integrated platform that seamlessly combines merchant checkout, digital customer journeys and high-density network to accelerate the out-of-home adoption against cost price points that are attractive and will push some of the volumes towards the out-of-home network more quickly than with the current proposition. I think what we've communicated also in the press release is that given the magnitude of messages, we'll have a deep dive on this new strategy around October time to give a bit more insight as to what we're aiming for and how the proposition has been developed going forward. If we then move to platforms, as I said, platforms is all about capturing the international growth through asset-light models. We invest, as you know, in 2026 in improving and expanding the workforce that will allow us in different countries to attract more clients. We have been investing in the IT landscape. The ease of use for asset-light platforms is, of course, crucial, and that gives us competitive edge as well. We've been expanding the network and predominantly the line haul network, and we've seen double-digit growth of e-commerce volumes in Mainland Europe in the first half year. And of course, we're strengthening our position in Asia beyond our position in China. to further derisk the business and unlock new markets there. That is what we're strategically aiming for. If you talk about progress in 2026, as said, intensifying external challenges, of course, we have seen a shift in market dynamics as Asian web shops redefine their commercial proposition and processes following the introduction of the import duty, and we see them behaving quite differently. If you compare them that has already in anticipation of July 1 that has impacted volume flows and is continuing to do so quickly after July 1, and we're adjusting the propositions towards that. Of course, we're investing like in other areas in the elements we just discussed to expand our e-commerce base in Europe. And the performance includes those start-up costs as well as start-up costs in fulfillment activities that we also guided in the beginning of the year will be a negative impact for 2026. Then let's move to mail. Although as I just said in the beginning, we're very positive about the implementation to the D+ 2 network. It should be clear for all that urgent political decision is still necessary because the transition to D+2 is by far not enough to get to a sustainable, affordable mail delivery in the Netherlands that is also economically viable, and it would take significantly more than this step to get there. And that's why we continue to push for the necessary changes in law to be able to move to a within 3-day delivery network later. We're still continuing discussions and legal proceedings around net costs. As you know, the transition up to the point that we have a real full functioning D+3 delivery model are quite substantial, and we believe it's unfair that the company needs to pay for those transitional costs because they really relate to the obligation that is put forth to us in terms of the universal service. So we have the '25 and '26 submissions already done, and we are currently preparing the application for net cost contribution over 2027. And without quick and decisive action in the political domain, it stays a very, very uncertain period for our employees, our consumers that uses Mail and customers alike. And so it's really crucial that as quickly as possible after recess, discussions in parliament will continue to get to a decision that gets us to an economically viable universal service. On Slide 14, it's the summary of the successful transition to B+ delivery as of July 12 and the implication for the segment performance that we also guided for in the beginning of the year. It's really been a major transformation both in terms of network redesign in the side, but of course, also at the same moment in time, the letter box parcels for D+1 delivery moved from mail to the e-commerce network. We've introduced a new tariff model to accommodate those changes for our delivery partners. And so far, we are happy with the implementation on both sides. you talk about the cost savings that are in the middle. And in the beginning of the year, we said, of course, there will be cost savings for half year. On the mail side, there will be also additional costs in relation to the implement, but also more importantly, additional costs related to the transfer of the letter box parcels through the e-commerce network. So the impact in the year of this change will be around EUR 12 million negative for [indiscernible] prerequisite to be able to move to a change later on. On the e-commerce side, full year, we expect EUR 50 million to EUR 60 million extra items, EUR 30 million basically around EUR 30 million for half year. And also within the e-commerce segment, it will be negative -- on that note, it's more detail on the financial performance in total and Linda handle.

Let's move to Slide 16. Let me start with this slide showing an overview of the key reported figures per segment. For Q2, it shows revenue for we also show normalized EBIT. Just to note in the remainder of the presentation, I will focus on the developments on the first half year. For total PostNL, so for the group as a whole, we saw, as Tim just mentioned, stable revenues and a resilient normalized EBIT in challenging markets. But let's have a look at how that looks like per segment, starting with e-commerce on the next slide. Overall, starting with revenue, we see in e-commerce good progress on our targeted yield measures. This is demonstrated by 5% increase in the average price per parcel despite the challenging external environment, which Tim also just referred to. The revenue amounted to 937 million compared to EUR 961 million last year, a decrease of 2.4% with volumes declining by 6.4%. If you only take the volume-related revenue, the decline was only minus 1.8%. Let's dive a bit deeper into the drivers for this, starting with domestic. Domestic volumes declined by 4.2% due to weaker market growth, weaker than expected and a limited market share loss, which was in line with our expects following our strategy. Good to see, of course, that the decline in the second quarter was less than in the first quarter. If you then look at our international volumes, those declined by 15%, mainly coming from our Asian web shops. This reflects weaker market conditions our volume to value strategy as well and the new low-cost entrants being mentioned earlier. And very important, we also see first impact especially of the large Asian players to prepare for the introduction of the import duty on the 1st of July. The volume decline overall was partly offset by a positive price/mix impact of EUR 36 million. I mean, that follows our further progress on our strategic yield measures, so that sticky price increase. The EUR 36 million includes EUR 5 million from fuel surcharges. These kicked in, in the second quarter and we are able to pass through the higher fuel prices, although with a small time left. The yield measures developed in line with plan and were supported by a very limited unfavorable shift in mix. As said, overall, the average price per parcel increased by 5% compared to half year 2025. In the last column, you see the step down in the bucket other, and that is predominantly explained by the sale of PS NO distribution in Q2 last year. Let's move on to the normalized EBIT bridge for e-commerce on Slide 18. This shows the reconciliation from EUR 15 million in half year 2025 to EUR 12 million in current half year. As just explained on the revenue slide, the decline in volumes driven by weaker market growth, the impact of our volume to value strategy and first effects from the introduction of import duty and handling fees. and a positive price mix effect that was predominantly driven by price increases and including the EUR 5 million fuel charges just mentioned. The organic cost increases amounted to EUR 38 million, including EUR 7 million related to higher fuel costs. So in the first half year, a EUR 2 million negative gap on fuel exists. But as said before, the surcharges have a time lag, which is a common mechanism in the industry for pass-through of higher fuel prices. Overall, PostNL achieved EUR 24 million in cost saving in the first half year, for example, through a leaner and more efficient operating model in first and middle mile and the shift to out-of-home delivery. These cost savings were partly offset by, for example, higher costs related to sustainability and equipment designed to reduce physical workload. And remember that we expect to overall achieve EUR 40 million to EUR 50 million in cost savings in 2026 for e-commerce. Let's move on to platforms on Slide 19 with the revenue bridge. And yes, as known, there is some overlap with the e-commerce story I just explained as part of the spring volumes are in our e-commerce network. Overall, revenue was up 1% to EUR 379 million compared to EUR 375 million last half year, with volumes down minus 7.1%. Please note that at constant currencies, the revenue increased by 2.7% instead of 1%. In line with our strategy, European e-commerce volumes continued to grow strongly by 28% in the first half of the year and were offset by declining low-margin traditional mail items, which was predominantly visible in the second quarter due to phasing and the general declining trend in mail. Please note that we already transitioned to become an e-commerce player in the European market with roughly 75% of revenue in Europe currently derived from e-commerce. Looking at volumes, the split is a bit different. Around 40% of volumes is e-commerce. But in short, so the demand dynamics here are growth in e-commerce and a decline in traditional mail. Looking at the Asian volumes, the Asian volumes, as mentioned earlier, declined and reflect the weaker market conditions. And we see here also the impact from our volume to value strategy and the preparations that were initiated by the Asian web shops for the introduction of the import duty on non-EU parcels for the 1st of July. Looking at price/mix, we see a very positive delta here. Prices were up in Europe approximately 4%. And obviously, the mix effect is favorable, particularly in Europe, explained by the strong growth in e-commerce volumes versus the declining mail and of course, also the shift in mix between European and Asian volumes play a role. Looking at other revenue that showed a decline and includes My Parcel other services as, for example, fulfillment and some intra-segment eliminations. Let's move to Slide 20, showing the normalized EBIT bridge for platforms, showing the reconciliation from EUR 3 million in half year 2025 to minus EUR 3 million this half year. And that the root cause, therefore, is mainly related to our strategy to invest in international expansion. The revenue drivers I just explained, so I won't repeat that, but let's look at the cost. The organic costs for platforms increased by EUR 9 million, and that is mainly related to increasing third-party costs for international transport and distribution. PostNL continues to invest, as mentioned, in the expansion of its intra-European activities, My Parcel and other services. That means more marketing efforts, expansion of staff and investing in IT, as Ping also earlier on referred to. For our fulfillment activities, we have opened a center in Germany this year. So in the bucket other results, you also see the impact of the start-up cost thereof. Good to mention that the overall net FX impact on normalized EBIT was 0. And then moving to the last and third segment, Mail. Starting with the revenue bridge on Slide 28 -- 21, apologies. Revenue rose by 0.5% to EUR 623 million compared to EUR 620 million last year. This is mainly explained by the combined impact from volume development and tariff increases. The mail volumes were down only 5.3% in the first half year. The main reason for this limited decline are the elections in the first quarter of 2026 of around EUR 90 million items. If you adjust for this election mail, volume decline was 7.9%, evidencing the continuation of the underlying trend of structurally declining mail volumes. The impact from volume decline was more than offset by a positive price/mix effect. Stamp prices were up 6.9% as of the 1st of January of this year and 8.3% as of mid-2025. In the bucket other, you see an EUR 8 million decline, and that is amongst others, related to international mail. Then moving to the bridge, the normalized EBIT bridge for Mail on Slide 20, 22. The volume decline and price mix effects I just explained. Looking then at the cost, the organic cost increases of EUR 15 million are mainly due to wage increases and other inflationary pressures. And then you see the cost savings of EUR 12 million, of which the majority is related to adjustments in sorting and delivery processes. And we also see that cost for IT, partly related to the transition to D+2, which we just completed and transport costs increased. That's about the segments. Let's now have a look at the free cash flow. I'm really pleased with the development that we report over the first half year of 2026. We see the free cash flow coming in at EUR 70 million minus, which is a significant improvement compared with last year. The strong improvement reflects our continued focus on proactive working capital management and also partly relates to prior year phasing effects. Thanks to our well-executed cash and balance sheet management, we are on track to deliver full year free cash flow within our outlook range. let's wrap up at Slide 24 and look at our outlook. We confirm, as said by Pim, we confirm our outlook for the full year 2026 and which was shared with you on the 23rd of February. For normalized EBIT, our outlook is between EUR 40 million and EUR 70 million, and we expect that to translate into a free cash flow of somewhere between 0 and minus EUR 30 million. The outlook is based on an assumed total revenue growth of between 5% and 7%, where it's obviously fair to assume that we will end up closer to the lower end of the range, taking the volume development in the first half of the year into account. As just explained, despite the volume decline, the bottom line result was resilient, where we expect further momentum in operational efficiency going forward. 2, we continue to invest in our strategic focus areas with CapEx expected to be around EUR 125 million while lease payments will be at the same level as in 2025. Expected organic cost increases remain high around EUR 140 million, mainly labor and other inflationary pressures. But price increases are expected to be more than sufficient to mitigate this. Our focus will continue to be on strong cost control and further efficiency improvements, building on our proven efforts to reduce cost. Please note that the outlook 2026 assumes limited impact from changes in treatment of the de minimis threshold in the EU and in the U.S. or in related handling and clear could evolve during the year and could therefore impact performance. In the past half year, we have implemented and working solutions for handling and clearance fees as of 1 July and later on also in November. Further, the outlook excludes the prolonged geopolitical uncertainty may increase inflation pressure and impact consumer spending. I will now hand back to Linde.

[Operator Instructions] Question comes from the line of Frank Claassen from Banque Degroof.

A question on the e-commerce volumes. If I recall well, you started the year with an assumption of 1% to 3% volume growth, yet we're now at minus 6.4% for the first half. So what is fair to assume for the full year? What is currently reflected in your guidance on volume growth? That is my first question. And a bit related to that on the pricing, the average price per parcel went up 5%. Is it fair to assume that it will go up even further in the second half given the lag in the fuel price surcharges? Any comments on that would be helpful.

Thanks, Frank, for your questions. Regarding your first question on the 1% to 3% e-commerce volume growth, you are correct as the developments in market growth were lower than we anticipated at the beginning of the year. It is fair to assume that the volumes for full year will not meet the 1% to 3% mentioned earlier. At the same time, as you see in our current performance, the drivers underlying price mix, our operational efficiency are gaining traction and are showing also bottom line results, and we expect further momentum there in the second half of the year. And then on your second question on the price per parcel, well, yes, of course, you can also given our seasonal pattern, you can expect with pricing with peak charges, et cetera, that trend will accelerate in the remainder of the year.

And our next question comes from the line of Marco Limite from Barclays Bank.

I got a few. So first question is on your statement that some important contracts have been concluded in Q2. What does that mean for the second half? I think you just mentioned that pricing should further accelerate in the second half. But should we also expect an improvement in volumes on a year-over-year basis versus the first half? I guess that will be the first question. My second question is on the platform business. So in Q2, we have seen a proper slowdown of volumes versus Q1. Now in the slides, you mentioned there was already some impact from the Din guidance, you don't expect any impact in the second half. So if you can clarify this point, what is the expectation for the volumes in the platform business and why we should expect any impact if -- I mean there are already some data out there showing some slowdown of growth from Asia to Europe. And the third question is on your business. mentioned before that you're working on submitting a request for the cost of USO '27, but you are still, let's say, fighting for the '25 and -- so at the same time, you received a fine for quality of service a couple of years ago. So the backdrop quite challenging in terms of negotiations. Any color you can give that any progress you've made sort of confidence that...

Okay. Let's go one by one. Yes, I think as part of the volume to value strategy and as you know, not all contracts at the same date, there has been a lot of negotiations concluded within Asian web shops into and throughout Q2. Those contracts have now been secured and we know against which conditions, which rates, which volume we expect to carry for them. will go a long way in continuing the strategy from volume to value. Of course, overall volume that we get is a function of how they commercially perform themselves. But those contracts in volume. So if they are below a certain threshold, then the price will move up even more than the base volumes that we contracted them on. So I think important keynotisforce our conviction that we're on the right path in terms of volume to value strategy. I think the second question in relation or the follow-up question in relation to, do you expect improvement of volumes in the second part of the year, overall, we do expect an improvement from the minus 6.4% a year based on the answer just gave on the question I'll take question 3 and then I question at the same time, we feel strongly that it cannot be our problem that we need to pay for the transition cost that we pay for that are out there as a function of an obligation that we action the outlook...

Yes. So on your question with the volumes amongst others for platform and Asia, et cetera, we say in our outlook that we assume limited impact. Obviously, that is still the case. So we, of course, face ourselves now, as also mentioned by impact thereof. However, these are the first weeks. Those parties are now also well, trying to organize themselves and make sure how their new logistics model. And well, we assume overall in the long term, no structural impact for the longer term. And therefore, we hold on to our performance. And in addition to that, also good to note, as you also see in our current performance that given our -- this time, volume decline, we are adapting well to that to scale down and adjust our cost accordingly.

Okay. And if I may, just a quick follow-up on this. So you are saying that some of the international clients are adjusting the business model the examples of what has been made so far are we seeing clients building more warehouses or in Europe? And what does that mean for you? So are you...

I think there you need to be very precise. I think [indiscernible] make different choices as how they handle distant market situation. Thus, platforms and basically say we will manage value on a basket size basis and we will own that basket to [indiscernible] the vast majority and then maybe slightly push a bit of the external cost up through the price points of the basket, that one options. So basically [indiscernible that isn't really thinking about a new logistical process because they think they can offset the value of the split between what the consumer will pay and what they will take additional cost on their side. Others take a different view and want to move to higher value product categories that those and move away from the really, really low and very cheap products where a EUR 3 increase in cost is still material. And you will probably see others that will continue down the road of low-value goods through European warehousing solution. So increasing warehousing capacity in Europe, flying it in or cargo it in bulk, so not at a 2C delivery parcel, but in bulk to circumvent the handling fees and duties and then pick them back from there and distribute it through various carriers towards the final consumer. So there's different parties taking different the end of the day, yes, it's all about where will the volume go, it will be shifting in competitive landscape between those Asian platforms. There will probably be new entrants taking the lower end of the value chain and there will potentially also be competitive implications for the European web shops where some of the Asian players really intend to move up to higher value products in which they will then subsequently compete with the current existing European platforms in those spaces. there we, of course, follow this closely. It's important that we maintain a good share of wallet in the most important clients that are willing to pay for service. That is what we secured throughout the contracts that I've given you answer on one of your earlier questions. So that's how the market evolves at this point in...

Next question comes from Henk Slotboom from The Idea.

All the degree of disclosure of numbers, which very happy. But I have a couple of questions. First of all, you talk a lot about the business and about the Chinese business. But last week, I listened into the CPT conference call, they said that C suffered because a lot of volume was now flowing to the Belux countries of Madrid, for example, into the Central Eastern Europe [indiscernible] what am I missing in the case because we see a quite clear in the Asian volumes in Spring. Is that pure value over volume? Or is it something else? And what is triggering the European volume so much? Does it have to do with the opening of the fulfillment center in Germany, I believe it's one of the Sanish second question I have is on e-commerce and about domestic volumes in particular. You've been giving deliberately up some market share by means of the value over volume strategy. And if I look at the average value per parcel, if I look at quite clearly visible that improves your yield. But how far can you go in giving up volume because at the same time, you see doing a lot of work for the Chinese handling for Amazon. We have Express, a new name has 85% nationwide coverage at least that's what they plan traditional players stepping up import has entered the market as well. How do you deal with that? Is it the cost savings element and reducing the cost per item is, of course, one part of the story, but what can you do to make the volumes grow again? And then the final question I have is on Mail the basically to deal with situation right now develop on that front? Those are my questions.

First question had correct me if not, let's say, answered them. I think there's a couple of elements that I want to single out. I think Spring Europe e-commerce volume is double-digit number that Linde talked about and that is a function of expanding the pan from Italy to Spain, from Spain to Germany by attracting local clients that fill those trade lanes and bring us in a more competitive position, not necessarily always, but there also the fulfillment proposition comes into play and that really not capital intensive fulfillment activities where we also manage warehouses and fulfillment activities for bigger clients that want to ship throughout Europe. I think there, the growth is as we would like it to be is a function of the growth plan that we launched in September and is going according to plan. The overall spring volumes are depressed by the development in quarter by phasing on the European international mail volumes that don't contribute that much. So in terms of revenue, not that significant, but in terms of volume that makes a very good 8% e-commerce volume growth diluted. On the Asian side, I don't see more volume coming to Amsterdam or what we do see is that our clearance solution is working working from the get-go, which is, of course, important because that clarifies towards consumers under which conditions they can still buy from other parties and we're able to administer and also fulfill the custom duties in the chain. And I think there, of course, we already saw based on examples that we've had in Romania and Italy that goods in transit has been a big issue. In other words, how do we exactly know that a product that is bought just before July doesn't get any duty if it accesses the country on July 1 or July 2. So that basically has led a lot of the parties to 3, 4 weeks in advance, stop marketing campaigns, not push more products towards Europe to avoid goods in transit being treated in a different way. And that has impacted Q2 numbers. We've, of course, seen the drops in volume. We also now see the Asian web shops adjusting their business model, adjusting their pricing strategies, reentering the marketing arena to do the marketing campaigns again and that's why we said that we don't expect a longer-term structural impact that is going to be material in terms of EBIT contribution from those changes. That could, in the meantime, still lead to very volatile volume developments. We quite often have share of wallet arrangements with those parties. So although there are new entrants, they sometimes forced by our volume-to-value strategy, have kicked out other carriers. And now our share is just a function basically on how successful they are to adjust their commercial models after the July 1 implementation. I think that is the answer on the first set of questions. If you then go to the e-commerce domestic volume, yes, it is a delicate balance between volume development, yield and market share. I think the market share loss is within the boundaries of what we find acceptable. Domestic volume development has obviously also impacted by lower consumer spending. So I think the flywheel of yield improvement could have worked even better with a bit more consumer spending as we also anticipated in the beginning of the year. But to -- well, to alleviate or to compensate or to derisk on this dilemma or these commercial game plans, it's obviously helpful to reduce your cost price per parcel. And that's why we introduced the 75 additional costs. Another point in competitive landscape is our redefined out-of-home strategy will also be significantly better equipped to compete with some of the other players you mentioned. That also strengthens our competitive position and over time, will also strengthen the domestic volume development. So far, not unsatisfied with the domestic performance, but a close monitoring of market share development and yield and volume increases remains crucial, and that's what we do on a daily basis. And that's also why it's important to look at the answers that Linda gave that we have been able to adjust the network and create efficiencies in the network utilization so that yield isn't suffering that much with lower volume than anticipated. third point, yes, this is sensitive. I don't think that ACM got it right. They said something about the permit on 2018 basis. So it's up to ACM to do their research. Of course, we feel that there is no need at all to amend anything. We've adhered to the conditions of the permit. The permit was there at the day that we acquired and was there when we integrated the business but let's say I don't have clarity right now as to where AM is in their research or their investigation. So I cannot tell you more about it right now.