The former Conservative trade minister Greg Hands has been appointed as a strategic adviser to a Czech conglomerate best known in the UK for acquiring Royal Mail.
EP Group – which also has investments in the energy, media and property sectors – is run by the multibillionaire Czech tycoon Daniel Křetínský, who Hands said he has known for “a long time”. The group received approval for its takeover of Royal Mail in December 2024, after long-running UK government efforts to assess the national security considerations of the deal.
Hands will advise EP Group in the UK and in Germany, countries where Křetínský said the former minister’s “deep understanding of … business and energy landscapes, coupled with his extensive experience in government and international trade, will be invaluable”.
The one-time politician is fluent in German and also speaks “good Czech”, the statement added.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments – an independent body advising former ministers and senior civil servants on appointments they wish to take up after leaving Whitehall – counselled Hands not to lobby the UK government on behalf of EP Group, or contacts he developed during his time as a minister, for two years from his last day in office.
Hands and Křetínský reportedly met in an official capacity when the tycoon, who is said to be so enigmatic he has been dubbed the “Czech Sphinx”, was considering investing in a UK battery plant in 2023.
EP Group and Křetínský have also attracted their fair share of controversy since announcing the bid for the UK’s postal service, including questions being raised over connections to Patrik Tkáč, a significant co-investor in many of his ventures.
Other criticisms of the business have focused on the conglomerate’s apparent attraction to unfashionable investments in the energy sector, where Křetínský has chased profits – rather than green credentials – by acquiring discounted fossil fuel businesses.
In a rare public speech in 2015, Křetínský said: “We want to make money in industries that are dying because we think they’ll die much more slowly than the general consensus says.” His approach has prompted environmentalists to call him a “fossil hyena”.
Separately, International Distribution Services, the company from which EP Group has acquired Royal Mail, announced the resignation of eight non-executive directors as its shares were formally delisted from the London Stock Exchange after the takeover.
Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, welcomed the departures. “The previous senior leadership team have overseen the gross mismanagement of one of the UK’s most important companies,” he said.
