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Wils 5:26 Wed Apr 17
West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

Royal Mail is facing a takeover bid from the Czech billionaire who co-owns West Ham United.

Daniel Kretinsky, known as the “Czech sphinx”, has had a cash bid for the company rejected but has signalled he will continue his pursuit of the troubled postal service.

Mr Kretinsky, who is worth $7.2bn (£5.8bn), made a cash offer for Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS), through his EP Group. Mr Kretinsky already owns a 27pc stake in IDS.

Shares in IDS surged 15pc on the news.

EP confirmed it made an offer to buy the whole group but was rejected by the Royal Mail board.

It comes at a difficult time for Royal Mail, which has faced battles with unions and is struggling with the shift from letters to parcels.

It has warned its future could be at risk unless the Government scraps its legal obligation to deliver letters six days a week.
EP said in a statement: “Weak financial performance, poor service delivery and a slow transformation, in the face of a market going through structural change, have put the business under unsustainable pressure.

“With the increasing competition from multinational companies in the UK postal market, private investment in Royal Mail becomes crucial.”

Royal Mail has a public service obligation to deliver letters and any bid for IDS would almost certainly involve the Government.

Royal Mail was founded in 1516 and is one of the oldest companies in the UK.

Mr Kretinsky’s company said it “recognises that Royal Mail is an important national asset” and said it would be “prepared to support this iconic business as it transforms and rebuilds into a modern postal operator”.

EP also owns Netherlands’ PostNL and a person familiar with the matter said Mr Kretinsky was possibly exploring a plan to carve out the parcels arm of IDS and merge it with Dutch operator PostNL.

IDS comprises the Royal Mail business focused on letters and parcels, and a European business courier business, GLS.

Mr Kretinsky is already a significant investor in the UK, with stakes in Sainsbury’s and a 27pc stake in West Ham. He also owns the Czech football team AC Sparta Prague.

EP said: “As a committed long-term investor in the UK, EP Group recognises the importance of the Royal Mail business to its various stakeholders, including employees, trade unions, customers and government, as the UK’s sole designated universal service provider.

“EP Group has submitted its non-binding indicative proposal to IDS with the interests of these important stakeholders in mind.”

Royal Mail was contacted for comment.

daveyg 7:38 Thu Apr 18
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

I was working for parcel Force at the time of the hand over to the capitalist elite.
The company who were taking over and lumping up the big money was a Canadian Equity Fund.
now at the time the CEO WAS a Canadian, can't remember her name. There were rumours of inside dealing etc,etc. The staff were all being told that this was of great value to them and nothing will change except they will profit financially by having free shares and options to buy shares at a greatly reduced rate. Thus the company was way under valued. Several blokes nearing retirement made a tidy sum but they were already doing well with their brilliant pension to be,final salary. They all did huge amounts of overtime in that year and some would be getting £50k a year for being a glorified paper boy. Not a bad earner if you could get it.
But the real winners were the top management and Equity Bosses. The tax payer wasn't one of these.
i should have written down or recorded what was said in some of these staff meetings.
Like someone else said this should never have been sold off like many other essential services notably the Water Companies.
oh to be a Tory politician or voter who fucked this up,again

RBshorty 7:24 Thu Apr 18
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

Problem is CB. Nobody wants to pay for anything.

And in the end. There’s no such thing as a free ride.!

Claret Badger 7:15 Thu Apr 18
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

National mail courier should be in state hands
as well as all other essential services

institutions once ran by people who had dedicated themselves and worked their way to the top of these industries were always better placed to make decisions based onthe business - not the needs of shareholders


see
Britiish Rail, NHS, Utilities, Prison services etc

Gaffer58 6:24 Thu Apr 18
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

He must see something that a lot of people are missing, I know the parcel side makes money but basically the Mail side loses millions every year, probably why he’s a little bit richer then me.

onsideman 4:02 Thu Apr 18
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

Mike Oxsaw 6:13 Wed Apr 17

A lot has changed since the Royal Mail was first set up



What, in the intervening 508 years? No shit! lol!

Mike Oxsaw 6:13 Wed Apr 17
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

A lot has changed since the Royal Mail was first set up.

The modern solution is 2 separate entities : "Information Delivery" & "Asset Delivery".

Nobody is going to be able to compete with the internet on Information delivery, so the commercial focus needs to be on asset delivery.

The Royal Charter needs to be updated to reflect this and it probably now costs in for them/the government to provide internet connectivity to every unconnected registered postal address in the UK if they insist on maintaining the information delivery aspect of the Charter.

british is best 5:59 Wed Apr 17
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

He should have bought the dwarf out . We won the world cup. were a national asset as well LOL .

ludo21 5:57 Wed Apr 17
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

Royal Mail is a joke.

Used to have a post office 100 yards from my office, that closed about 7-8 years ago.

The local post box, about 70 yards from my office had a last collection at 5pm until about five years ago when it moved to 3pm. About 12 months ago the last collection became 9am ffs!!

Apparently RM now wants to move to a delivery service 2 or 3 times a week

Hopefully our co-owner can sort the fuckers out.

british is best 5:56 Wed Apr 17
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

He owns 27% . The dwarf owns 38,% .yet he's our owner . We can see where this is heading.

Mike Oxsaw 5:42 Wed Apr 17
Re: West Ham co-owner launches pursuit of 'national asset' Royal Mail

"Royal Mail was contacted for comment. "

A reply was sent at 17:43 and so missed the last post. It should arrive within 2 days.