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FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - German postal and logistics company Deutsche Post confirmed its targets for the year despite a tough economic backdrop and even as it missed expectations for third quarter profit.
The world's largest logistics company said on Wednesday that the slowdown in global growth and tough price competition had hit its freight forwarding business especially, where earnings dropped 43 percent to 72 million euros ($90 million) (56.47 million pound) in the quarter despite an increase in revenue.
"We continue to be satisfied with our performance," Chief Financial Officer Larry Rosen said in a video posted on Deutsche Post's website discussing group results.
"It's a difficult economic environment, we have geo-political turbulence and a slow growth environment continuing and in that light I think we're performing quite well."
The IMF cut global GDP forecasts for the third time this year in early October, while rival TNT Express last month warned on profit margins given weaker than expected growth in European economies.
Rosen said that for the group to meet its target for operating earnings of between 2.9-3.1 billion euros this year, it would need the fourth quarter, traditionally its strongest, to be a "big one".
"We expect it to be a big quarter," he added.
Deutsche Post's Chief Executive Frank Appel also raised hopes of a cash payout to shareholders by saying a payout to shareholders was one way to use excess liquidity in general, though said it was too early to talk about specific steps.
The company reported third-quarter earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 677 million euros, compared with the average forecast for 691 million in a Reuters poll. Sales of 14 billion euros slightly beat expectations for 13.79 billion.
Like rival Austrian Post, which also reported results on Wednesday, Deutsche Post said its parcel business continued to grow in the quarter, with volumes up by more than 8 percent, helped by shoppers buying online.
(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan)