Thousands of former and current Royal Mail staff are being asked to sell their shares to a Czech billionaire.
On Wednesday morning, Daniel Kretinsky’s investment group, which wants to buy Royal Mail’s parent company, published its formal offer online and sent it by post. Mr Kretinsky can now formally start lobbying investors to accept the offer.
He needs the approval of shareholders of three quarters of the parent company, but this task will be made easier because he already owns 27.5% of it. Big asset managers including Blackrock, UBS, Vanguard and Schroders own most of the other 72.5% of International Distribution Services (IDS) that Mr Kretinsky does not own. Meanwhile, Royal Mail staff still collectively own 5.5% of the shares after qualifying staff received 600 shares in the company at the time of its privatisation in 2013. This offer values those staff shares at nearly £200m.
Mr Kretinsky made his fortune in energy companies. He also has stakes in Sainsbury’s and West Ham Football Club. The board of IDS has already recommended that shareholders big and small accept his offer of 370p per share.
This is more than the 315p it is currently trading at and substantially above the 220p it was worth before Mr Kretinsky’s first offer to buy the company. However, the government still has the ability to block this deal, which it may do given Royal Mail’s importance to the UK.
Source: BBC
In other news – Suella Braverman still has 24/7 security due to threats
Former home secretary Suella Braverman has told the BBC she still has the 24-hour personal protection she was given while in government because of the threats and harassment she receives.
On a recent trip to a supermarket, she said people called her “a genocidal bleep” in front of her children. The government announced a £31m budget for security for politicians in February. Read more
