Shareholders in TNT Express NV are growing increasingly concerned about the Dutch logistics company's management and strategy, and some of the company's largest investors are calling for changes, reported the Wall Street Journal.

    Since the break-up of TNT and its former mail unit, PostNL NV, in May, the companies have lost over 50 percent of their combined market value amid profit warnings and continuing operational issues at the TNT Express business, and investors are losing faith in TNT's ability to create value for shareholders.

    "We have seen three consecutive profit warnings, a complete loss of focus on Brazil, sloppy corporate governance surrounding the demerger and a loss of share in core TNT Express markets," said David Tiley, vice-president of investments at Canadian fund manager MacKenzie Cundill, which owns about 4.5 percent of TNT and around 10 percent of PostNL.

    "We now have serious concerns that the intrinsic value of TNT Express is being impaired by an embarrassing procession of executional and governance missteps," he said.

    TNT said its supervisory board is fully behind chief executive Marie-Christine Lombard, adding that the company's strategy is clear.

    The company cut its full-year guidance for the third time this year in October and posted a 64 percent drop in third-quarter net profit to US$6.6 million despite an uptick in sales.

    The courier company said its profit was hit as customers switched from air to lower-cost road transport, and as demand fell in Asia.

    Meanwhile, TNT's Brazil business stayed unprofitable after it lost several customers in the country.

    TNT shareholders argue that its focus on emerging markets is too risky, considering its size. During the first nine months of 2011, Asia and Latin America contributed about 30 percent to the company's sales, but losses in those regions wiped out more than 40 percent of TNT's profit made in Europe.

    TNT says its Brazil operations will become profitable in the second half of 2012 and China operations in 2013, though analysts said it will take years before they will make a solid contribution to earnings.

    US fund Jana Partners and Canada's Alberta Investment Management Corp, which jointly own about five percent of TNT, recently asked the company to replace Lombard as CEO, according to a person familiar with the talks.

(source:http://www.cargonewsasia.com/category.aspx?id=3?