Daniel Kretinsky appoints himself as Royal Mail chairman

Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire behind the £3.6 billion takeover of the Royal Mail, has installed himself as chairman of the once state-owned, 500-year-old national postal operator.

Following his takeover this month, it was announced on Friday that Kretinsky, 49, would become chairman of International Distribution Services (IDS), the listed company that his interests have acquired, and of its main subsidiary, Royal Mail.

The company also honoured the commitments it made to win the Labour government’s support for the acquisition, which was first announced more than a year ago when the previous Conservative administration was in power.

These included the issuing of a so-called golden share to the government. The share holds no voting rights, meaning that ministers cannot sway the policies of the company, nor any economic benefits, so the government will not share in any appreciation in the value of the company nor in the future distribution of dividends.

The golden share does have “certain reserved matters attached to it that require the prior written consent of the holder of the [government] share”, which include a commitment that although Royal Mail is for the first time in the hands of a foreign owner it will remain headquartered in the UK and remain a UK entity for tax domicile purposes.

A statement from EP Group, Kretinsky’s corporate vehicle, also confirmed that Royal Mail’s articles of association have changed to include the establishment of an advisory committee, which it had promised to both the company’s main trade unions, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite, as well as to the Competition and Markets Authority.

The CWU dropped its potential opposition to Kretinsky’s takeover on the basis that it, as the main representative of the 130,000-strong workforce, would be represented on such a committee.

It had long campaigned for the return of Royal Mail to public ownership after its 2013 privatisation under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

It is understood, however, that the CWU leadership believed that for the union to be part of an advisory committee in a Kretinsky-led company was preferable to the status quo: a listed market company where industrial relations were the worst since the days when it was in public hands.

The CWU’s acquiescence encouraged the government to waive its powers to block any deal on national security or national interest issues.

Keith Williams, the former IDS chairman, who left the company on June 2, was named this week as the new chairman of Serco, the government contractor.

Kretinsky was dubbed the Czech Sphinx in the media during the times when, before he became a more high-profile figure, he was seen as a shadowy individual from an eastern European country taking an interest in various British national institutions.

He made his fortune in the energy privatisations of his native Czech Republic. He has invested widely around Europe since. In Britain he holds stakes in Sainsbury’s supermarkets and West Ham United football club. On the Continent, he has significant interests in PostNL, the Dutch post office; the French retailers Casino and Dart; the German retailer Metro; and Sparta Prague football club.

The IDS board has now been packed with Kretinsky’s associates as non-executive directors. Jiri Zrust, a fellow Czech who is a senior logistics executive at the commodities group Trafigura, has been appointed as an independent non-executive director and EP said that further independent directors were to be appointed in due course.

EP has already hired Greg Hands, a former Tory minister, as a strategic adviser.