DHL 2014 Annual Report Download - page 63

Supply Chain invests in new business
In the Supply Chain division, capital expenditure amounted to  million in the
reporting year (previous year:  million). Of this amount,  million related to
the Supply Chain business unit,  million to Williams Lea and  million to central
entities. Approximately   of the funds were used to support new business globally. In
the Americas and Asia Pacic regions, investments focused primarily on new business in
the Consumer, Retail and Automotive sectors. In Europe, the majority of capital expend-
iture was used for customer projects in the  Consumer sector and the Retail sector in
Germany. Investments were also made to renew the eet in the  and in Africa. In the
Williams Lea business unit, the main focus of our investments was on  infrastructure.
Cross-divisional investments decline
Cross-divisional capital expenditure fell from  million in the prior year to  mil-
lion in , due predominantly to lower expenditure for real estate. By contrast, invest-
ments in vehicles and  equipment increased year-on-year.
Higher operating cash flow
Net cash from operating activities amounted to , million in nancial year ,
up  million on the previous year. e improved  contributed  million to
this increase. e depreciation, amortisation and impairment losses contained in 
are non-cash eects and are therefore eliminated. ey increased by  million, mainly
due to impairment losses recognised on aircra. e change in provisions rose from
– million to – million, partially due to the reversal of restructuring provisions
in the Express division. At , million, net cash from operating activities before
changes in working capital was  million down on the previous year. anks to better
working capital management, the changes in working capital led to a lower cash outow
of  million, compared with a cash outow of  million in the previous year.
Cash paid to acquire property, plant and equipment and intangible assets increased
considerably during the reporting year from , million to , million. By con-
trast, the changes in current nancial assets in particular led to a signicant net cash
inow of  million: the sale of money market funds at the beginning of the year
resulted in a cash inow of  million, whilst towards the end of the year we reinvested
surplus liquid funds of  million on the capital market on a short-term basis. In the
previous year, the investment of short-term liquidity had led to a net cash outow of
 million. In total, at , million, net cash used in investing activities was signi-
cantly lower than in the previous year (, million).
. Operating cash flow by division, 
m
PeP
1,085
Express
1,689
Global Forwarding, Freight
181
Supply Chain
673
Deutsche Post  Group —  Annual Report
57
Group Management Report — REPORT ON ECONOMIC POSITION — Financial position