Foreword

Foreword by Peter Hasler, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Susanne Ruoff, CEO

Dear Reader

Last year will go down in the history of Swiss Post: in 2013, Swiss Post ceased to be a federal public institution and became a public limited company with special legal status. The Confederation remains the full owner – but now in the role of shareholder.

At the same time, PostFinance was demerged into a public limited company under private law, subject to regulation by FINMA. PostFinance now has a banking licence and a regulator that reflects its true importance as one of Switzerland's leading retail financial institutions.

The three subsidiaries, Post CH Ltd, PostFinance Ltd and PostBus Switzerland Ltd now do business under the umbrella of the parent, Swiss Post Ltd. Post CH Ltd operates in the communication and logistics markets. It consists of four units: PostMail, PostLogistics, Swiss Post Solutions and Post Offices & Sales.

Swiss Post continues to be supervised by various federal authorities. As a result of the comprehensive revision of postal legislation, the supervision has been extended and differentiated to reflect Swiss Post's activities and responsibilities.

The conversion to a public limited company has given Swiss Post a modern structure. Swiss Post's mandate from the Confederation remains, of course, in place. However, Swiss Post is now obliged to fulfil its universal service obligation in two areas: postal services and payment transactions. This means that Swiss Post can organize its services more flexibly for its customers. After all, how the universal service obligation is met should not be set in stone, but should be shaped according to the behaviour of customers.

The challenges facing Swiss Post are many and varied. Given increasing digitization and new requirements on the part of our customers, our company needs to remain agile. In a mobile and highly networked society, people have got used to accessing information, ordering goods and using services whenever and wherever they want. By the same token, the post office network is less busy than before. With this in mind, Swiss Post's many innovations focus on the interface between the physical and digital worlds. Swiss Post today has already started shaping the universal service of tomorrow. You can find out how in our Annual Report.

Swiss Post is in good shape with solid foundations and is well equipped to meet the challenges of the future. It closed the year 2013 with Group profit normalized to take account of one-off items in accordance with IFRS of 626 million francs. We would like to thank our customers for the confidence they have shown in us. We will work hard to continue providing high-quality services. On behalf of the Board of Directors and Executive Management, we would also like to say a big thank you to all of Swiss Post's managers and employees for this good result.

Peter Hasler	Susanne Ruoff
Chairman of the Board	CEO of Directors