Royal Mail bidder offers to buy all staff shares  By Proactive Investors

Proactive Investors – Royal Mail (LON:) bidder Daniel Kretinsky has urged over 100,000 former and current employees of the postal service to sell him their shares as he looks to have his offer approved.

Kretinsky’s investment group, which made a 370p-a-share offer for Royal Mail’s parent company International Distributions Services PLC, published the bid to staff members online and through the post.

The Czech billionaire is now in a period where he can formally lobby IDS investors to sell shares, in the hope of meeting the 75% shareholder approval required for the deal to be accepted.

Some 27.5% of IDS is already owned by Kretinsky’s EP Group, while large asset managers such as BlackRock (NYSE:), Vanguard, UBS and Schrodes own a large portion of the other 72.5%.

Royal Mail workers, who recieved 600 shares in the company at the time of its privatisation in 2013, own around 5.5% of the wider company.

While the board has recommended shareholders accept the £3.6 billion offer from the ‘Czech Sphinx’, several hurdles remain ahead including obtaining government approval, winning over the unions and avoiding a debt squeeze.

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