Royal Mail owner IDS fails to post full year results on time as takeover bid looms

Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) has failed to deliver its full year trading update on time, scheduled for 7:00AM on Thursday morning, as a possible takeover hangs over the group.

IDS was set to announce its full financial year 2024 results this morning, but at 7:42AM the press team sent an email apologising for the inconvenience.

It said there was “a delay in issuing our results this morning. We expect them to be up in the next hour or so.” But by 12:00AM there was still no sign of the results.

IDS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It comes as IDS remains in an offer period following an announcement last week about the potential takeover swoop Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky‘s by EP Group.

It said last Wednesday that it is “minded” to accept the raised takeover offer worth around £3.5bn.

The FTSE 250 company’s shares soared as much as 20 per cent after the update, with IDS saying it was likely to agree on the terms and price of the proposal if Kretinsky makes a firm offer.

Kretinsky’s EP Group, which already holds a roughly 27.6 per cent stake in IDS through its affiliate group Vesa Equity, had raised its proposal to 370p per share, including a 10p dividend.

The potential takeover comes as Britain’s embattled national postal service, which was privatised in 2013, is calling for urgent action to modernise its operations. It is facing rapidly declining letter volumes and increased competition from nimbler opponents such as Amazon, Evri and DPD.

In its third quarter results, IDS said group revenue was up 9.8 per cent on the same period in 2022 as Royal Mail regained some customers, although it was partially offset by increased costs from pay increases and inflation.

The company posted losses of £169m in the first half of the year.