Royal Mail £3.6bn takeover delayed amid political woes in Romania

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/natio ... in-romania

Royal Mail’s £3.6bn takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is set to be delayed until the second quarter amid a political crisis in Romania.

Kretinsky’s EP Group said the only regulatory bar still to be cleared relates to its foreign direct investment in Romania.

It confirmed that, while there are no major issues expected with the Romania investment and that talks to gain approval from authorities are “progressing well”, it now predicts clearance will only come in time to see the deal complete in the second quarter.

EP Group had previously hoped to complete the takeover in the first three months of 2025.

Kretinsky – nicknamed the “Czech sphinx” – needs to clear the regulatory hurdle in Romania because part of his business operates in the country.

Romania is in the middle of political upheaval after a presidential election was cancelled last year following allegations of Russian interference.

Kretinsky’s deal to buy Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services was cleared by the UK Government in December last year.

It paved the way for the more than 500-year-old postal service to pass into foreign ownership for the first time.

Mr Kretinsky made a number of pledges to soothe concerns over his takeover, including a vow to keep the brand name and retain Royal Mail’s HQ and tax residency in the UK for the next five years, as well as commitments to protect the company’s universal service obligations.

Since the deal was agreed, regulator Ofcom has said it is set to allow Royal Mail to ditch Saturday deliveries for second class letters and cut wider postal delivery targets in view of declining demand for letter mailings.

Ofcom said in January it had provisionally concluded that reducing the second class letter service to alternate weekdays, while keeping first class deliveries six days a week, would continue to meet postal users’ needs.

This would save Royal Mail between £250m and £425m a year, according to the regulator.

[Bellaber]

Apparently the deal is dead because of his link to Russia, hopefully we go bankrupt

[Bellaber]

I hope this rumour is true

[123456]

All to do with the lack of legitimate Romania government.
Be all sorted second quarters.

[robking]

The man who came top of the poll in the December election albeit with only 22% of the votes in the first round, has been barred from running in the new election, the first round of which is on 4th of May and if nobody gets 50% a second round will be held on 18th of May.

The far right winger took his case to the European Court but the judges there have thrown his case out. He has clearly broken Romanian election rules, for example he can't explain where his campaign funds are coming from, it is strongly suspected that he is a puppet of Moscow.

The takeover is delayed because of this political turmoil in Romania, they need to rubber stamp the deal and it is nothing to do with Kretinsky's alleged links to Russia, that subject has been investigated and he's been cleared.

[Rommagic]

End of June.

[Jefferson Starfish]

End of June.

The second quarter of the year, as the article says.