Deutsche Post profits halved in 2011

German postal and logistics group Deutsche Post said Thursday its net profit was halved last year owing to one-off effects related to the sale of its retail banking unit Postbank. Deutsche Post said in a statement it booked net profit of 1.163 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in 2011, a drop of 54.2 percent from a year earlier. The decline was largely due to the fact that 2010 earnings had been inflated by income from the sale of Postbank, the statement explained. Stripping out that effect, bottom-line earnings rose by 50.6 percent last year, Deutsche Post calculated. Operating profit grew 32.8 percent to 2.436 billion euros on a 2.8-percent rise in sales to 52.829 billion euro. "2011 was a very good year for our group. We hit all our targets," said chief executive Frank Appel. Looking ahead to the current year, Deutsche Post said that "against the background of a moderately growing global economy, we expect to produce further gains in revenues and earnings." Operating profit was projected to rise to 2.5-2.6 billion euros, it said. And net profit would "improve in line with the operating business in 2012."