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In an interview with the BBC, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky said he will honour Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) for as long as he is in charge
The Czech billionaire set to become the new owner of Royal Mail has vowed to uphold the service’s obligation to deliver letters six days a week throughout Britain.
Daniel Kretinsky told the BBC on Tuesday that Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) will never be scrapped during his tenure, should the takeover prove successful.
‘As long as I’m alive, I completely exclude this,’ he said.
Under the current USO rules, Royal Mail is required to deliver first-class post six days a week, to all UK addresses under a ‘one-price-goes-anywhere’ basis.
In May, Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services (IDS) agreed to a £3.57billion takeover offer from Kretinsky’s EP Group.
The deal will see it taken off the public markets and give full control to Kretinsky’s firm, which already has a 27 per cent stake in the company.
Shareholders of the post service will vote on the deal at their next meeting on 27 September.
Kretinsky told the broadcaster: ‘I say this as an absolutely clear, unconditional commitment: Royal Mail is going to be the provider of Universal Service Obligation in the UK, I would say forever, as long as the service is going to be needed, and as long as we are going to be around.’
Despite calls in the past from unions for staff to be given a stake in the firm, Kretinsky did not view an employee ownership stake as ‘the right model’.
Instead, the billionaire who is said to be worth £6billion, is ‘very open’ to profit sharing.
The 49-year-old, who also has a stake in West Ham United and Sainsbury’s, said: ‘The logic is: share of profit, yes, (but an) ownership structure creates a lot of complexity.
‘For instance, what happens if the employee leaves? He has shares, he is leaving, he is not working for the company, he (still) needs remunerating.’
He added he would prefer to ‘remunerate the people who are working for the company, and creating value for the company’.
The potential sale of Royal Mail’s owner has attracted heavy scrutiny, with unions describing it as ‘disastrous’ and ‘an act of incredible short-sightedness’.
The Government has the power to block the deal altogether with Labour vowing to ‘robustly scrutinise’ the takeover and give workers a ‘stronger voice’ in its election manifesto.
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