Royal Mail’s takeover by a Czech billionaire is official after enough shareholders approved his bid.
It means Britain’s 509-year-old post carrier will fall under foreign ownership for the first time since it was established by Henry VIII in 1516.
Daniel Kretinsky, an energy tycoon nicknamed the ‘Czech Sphinx’ for his inscrutable approach to his business decisions, swooped on Royal Mail with a £3.6billion offer last year, in a move that prompted outrage from politicians and businesses.
The bid was launched after Kretinsky became the largest shareholder in Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) by building up a near-28 per cent stake.
IDS announced yesterday that investors holding just over 80 per cent of its shares had voted in favour of the takeover by Kretinsky’s firm EP Group. The threshold for the bid to be approved was 75 per cent.
The billionaire said the result showed ‘overwhelming support’ for his offer and that under new ownership Royal Mail would ‘continue improving service quality, innovating for customers and growing the business’.
Approved: Daniel Kretinsky, an energy tycoon nicknamed the ‘Czech Sphinx’, swooped on Royal Mail with a £3.6bn offer for the company last year
Aside from his interests in energy plants and the postal service, Kretinsky, 49, has big stakes in Sainsbury’s and West Ham United football club.
The takeover is being partially funded by borrowing, with loans of £3billion on top of IDS’s existing £2billion of debt.
As part of the deal, Kretinsky agreed to a series of conditions for his takeover of the postal carrier to secure approval from ministers.
The Government will retain a ‘golden share’ in the business. This means any changes to Royal Mail’s ownership, tax residency or where its headquarters are based will need ministers’ approval.
Kretinsky has also agreed to retain the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which guarantees a first-class postal service to anywhere in the UK for a fixed price six days a week.
But these rules are set to be changed by the regulator Ofcom, which has proposed cutting second-class deliveries to every other working day.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, which represents over 100,000 Royal Mail posties, said: ‘We will not hesitate to challenge EP Group if they do not fulfil their obligations to postal workers and customers.’
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Read More: Investors approve Czech Sphinx’s £3.6bn Royal Mail bid: Postal service falls into foreign