Royal Mail boss to scoop £5m from selling Britain’s postal service to Czech billionaire

The boss of Royal Mail’s owner could rake in more than £5million from the sale of the postal service to the ‘Czech Sphinx’.

Martin Seidenberg, the chief executive of International Distribution Services (IDS), will get a payout due to his shareholding in the firm.

The figures were revealed in a formal offer document as IDS and billionaire Daniel Kretinsky push ahead with a controversial £3.6billion takeover.

The filings also showed that bankers, lawyers and other advisers will take home £146million in fees for working on the deal.

German businessman Seidenberg took the reins at IDS last year after running the firm’s European parcels arm GLS.

Part of his potential payout is connected to IDS’s long-term incentive plan and deferred shares. 

A maximum payment of up to £5.4million is dependent on the takeover being completed and Seidenberg meeting performance targets.

Details of the potential pay out came as Kretinsky yesterday said he will consider a profit-sharing agreement with Royal Mail workers following the deal. 

The offer document said the billionaire is ‘exploring, following completion of the acquisition, potentially offering a form of employee participation model in the business to all employees’.

It said this could involve a ‘profit-sharing mechanism’ but added: ‘No decision has been made in respect of the terms of, or timing for implementation of, such an incentive scheme.’

Union chiefs said that the proposals do not go far enough.

They have been lobbying for a collective employee trust that would give workers a say in how the business is run and a share of profits. It would also reduce the risk of strikes and industrial action.

A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union said: ‘We are looking for a serious stake in the company but also a serious voice in the running of the company.

‘We’re not interested in profit payouts that are at the mercy of a board – we want workers’ influence at all levels. 

‘Not just the main board, but the remuneration committee, the recruitment committees, to make sure we don’t recruit people who don’t have the interest of postal workers at heart.’

Posties were given a stake when Royal Mail was privatised by the coalition government in 2013. Many of them have since sold their shares, but employees still own around 5.5 per cent of the business – which would be valued at £200million under the current terms of the deal.

In its manifesto for the General Election, the Labour Party pledged to ‘robustly scrutinise’ the deal and give posties a ‘stronger voice’. 

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has called for cast-iron guarantees that vital postal services will be protected.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said getting the unions onside ‘could bolster political support’ amid a mounting backlash over the deal.

She added: ‘Regulatory approval could be a tough hurdle, given how important Royal Mail is to the UK economy.’

Writing in The Mail on Sunday earlier this month, CWU boss Dave Ward called for ‘a new ownership and governance model for Royal Mail’.

He added: ‘Our plan will build back trust from the public and businesses of the UK and win over tens of thousands of postal workers who have been demoralised by the company’s leadership by giving them a major stake in their businesses.’

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