BERLIN (Reuters) - German postal and logistics company Deutsche Post DHL (DE:DPWGn) said it expected profit to rise by just over 7 percent this year as it reported annual results on Wednesday, driven by booming demand for parcel deliveries thanks to people shopping online.
Europe's biggest postal group said it delivered a record 1.2 billion parcels in Germany last year, a 9.2 percent increase on 2015, taking its market share to 45 percent from 43.7 percent in 2016.
Deutsche Post DHL is expanding its parcel network across Europe, having acquired a stake in Relais Colis in France and bought UK Mail in Britain. It is also trialling new ways of getting parcels to customers, such as to the boots of their cars.
"We expect to maintain this positive momentum in 2017 and the coming years and are therefore continuously investing in the expansion of our capacity," Chief Executive Frank Appel said in a statement on the group's website.
The group has repeatedly shrugged off moves by customer Amazon.com (O:AMZN) to invest in its own delivery capabilities.
Deutsche Post DHL posted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 3.49 billion euros ($3.69 billion) for 2016, in line with analysts' expectations, and said it expected that to rise to around 3.75 billion euros this year.
Around 1.5 billion euros of the 2017 EBIT is due to come from the post, e-Commerce and parcel division.
The group proposed a dividend of 1.05 euros a share for 2016, compared with 0.85 euros for 2015 and above expectations of 1.00 euro a share.
Analysts currently expect it to increase revenues to 59.5 billion and profit to 3.79 billion euros this year.
($1 = 0.9469 euros)