Hunt vows to ‘protect what people want from Royal Mail’ in £3.6bn takeover

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has put pressure on Daniel Kretinsky to strengthen guarantees on his planned takeover of Royal Mail amid concerns the postal service could be broken up.

Mr Hunt said regulators should look at the deal’s undertakings “very carefully”, adding that the Government would also keep them under review.

Mr Kretinsky has made a series of legally binding undertakings as part of his £3.6bn bid for Royal Mail.

But some of the pledges will only be valid for three years, sparking fears about the billionaire’s future plans for the company.

In an interview with LBC, Mr Hunt said: “It’s entirely possible we will decide that we should extend it beyond that, but that’s for three years’ time.”

Mr Kretinsky, who is already the largest shareholder in Royal Mail through his company EP Group, has pledged not to split the group’s lucrative parcels business, GLS, from its struggling letters business.

Under terms set out in his offer, this undertaking would be valid for three years after the deal has completed.

The tycoon has also vowed to keep key Royal Mail services going for five years, including the one-price-goes-anywhere system and Saturday deliveries for first-class post.

Other undertakings include keeping the Royal Mail brand, protecting pensions and keeping the company headquartered and tax resident in the UK, and continuing to recognise its unions.

The swoop by Mr Kretinsky, who is also an investor in Sainsbury’s and West Ham Football Club, means Royal Mail will pass into foreign ownership for the first time in its 500-year-old history.

After his offer was accepted, Mr Kretinsky told the Financial Times: “Royal Mail is going strategically in the right direction, but not with the right speed. If Royal Mail is not capable of defending its market share, it starts a deadly downward spiral.

“Our goal would not be to dispose of GLS but rather it would be to see if we can acquire additional companies. Without us, the businesses perhaps would have been already split.”

Mr Hunt has said the deal will be reviewed under tough national security laws amid concerns about the threat to critical infrastructure.

But on Thursday he insisted the Government would ensure that key services such as Saturday deliveries are maintained for British consumers.

He said: “I can’t tell you what the outcome of that [review] would be in this case.

“What I can say is that we will make absolutely sure that we protect what people want from Royal Mail, which is six-day deliveries, and that will be absolutely safe.”

Labour has also said it would review the deal and has pledged to maintain key Royal Mail services.

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The Chancellor also played down concerns about handing sensitive national assets to foreign buyers, insisting Britain needs foreign cash to “modernise”.

He said: “I do think that for our economy to modernise, we need to attract investment from all over the world.

“And you know, we have grown faster than other European economies because we’ve been more open to investment.”

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