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The Czech billionaire bids to buy royal mail sent letters to more than 100,000 current and former employees setting out its official £3.75bn offer for the business.
Daniel Křetínský’s EP group is asking Royal Mail employees who own more than 5% of the company’s shares to sell in a move that would help paved the way for the takeover.
The letters were published on Wednesday when Kretinski published the offer document confirming details of his offer to buy Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services.
Last month, the sale of IDS came close after the board accepted the £3.57 billion offer from the EP. As part of the offer, Křetínský’s company committed to a number of commitments and contractual obligations, including maintaining delivery of first-class mail six days a week and keeping the business headquartered in the UK for five years.
In the proposed deal, the billionaire, who made his fortune in energy and owns a minority stake in one of the main gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, would pay 360p per share for the 73% of the struggling postal service he does not yet own, with investors also receive a 10p dividend per share.
Kretynsky, nicknamed the Czech Sphinx for his reluctance to speak publicly, must now convince three-quarters of shareholders to back the deal, with most of the remaining shares owned by investors including major asset managers such as BlackRock, UBS and Schroders.
Royal Mail shares closed at 315p on Tuesday night, in a sign that the City is not convinced the bid will succeed.
In theory, the next government could ‘call in’ the takeover for review and prevent it if it was deemed to be against the UK’s national security interests.
Labor which polls suggest he will win next week’s general electiondid not oppose the acquisition in principle, saying that it welcomed the assurances given by Křetínský and would ensure that he kept them.
The EP offer could be worth up to £3m to current and former Royal Mail directors, while postal staff who hold onto the shares they were given during the 2013 privatization could receive almost a £3,400 windfall.
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Unions have not yet backed the deal and previously said the guarantees given by the EP group were “not good or strong enough”.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) called on workers to have a stake in the businessas sources close to Křetínský told the Times that he could offer that in exchange for the unions’ blessing on the deal.
Sky News reported on Tuesday that advisers working on the acquisition were expecting a huge windfall, with bankers and consultancies likely to make more than £130m from the deal.
The amount of the fees will be disclosed in the offer document, with Křetínský EP Group paying tens of millions of pounds to banks to help finance the deal.
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