Royal Mail may be forced to sell profitable businesses...

[POSTMAN]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpres ... 972278380A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Royal Mail may be forced by the European Commission to sell off some of its most profitable businesses in exchange for a government bailout of its pension scheme, it has been reported.

The Commission is understood to be considering whether the Government's plan to take on the group's pension liabilities constitutes state aid, and if this gives the business an unfair advantage over its competitors, according to the Sunday Times newspaper.

If it does decide the move constitutes state aid, it is thought Brussels may demand the sale of some of the Royal Mail's most profitable divisions, including its European parcels operation General Logistics Systems.

The business, which is based in Holland, handles more than 1 million parcels a day and made a £51 million profit in the past six months. Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland were both ordered to make disposals by the Commission after they received a bailout from taxpayers.

But having to sell off some of Royal Mail's valuable businesses could hamper Government plans to sell the group.

The Government announced plans last year to sell off 90% of the Royal Mail to private companies, including overseas firms, with the remaining 10% going in shares to postal workers. To make the deal more attractive, it will take over Royal Mail's £8.4 billion pension deficit. The Post Office arm of the business will be retained and is likely to be converted into a mutual structure in a similar manner to the John Lewis Partnership or the Co-operative Group.

Officials from the Department for Business have held informal talks with Brussels about their plans for the group, but have not yet notified the Commission formally.

But commentators point out that there are grounds for optimism, as unlike the banking industry, the postal industry is in decline, with delivery volumes falling from 84 million a day to 68 million a day during the past five years. In 2007 the Commission also gave approval for the French government to finance the pensions of La Poste workers.

A Department for Business spokesman said: "It is far too early to speculate on this matter. We have only had informal talks with the European Commission and clearly they will not be able to take a firm view until the UK has formally notified them of its intentions and they have gone through their procedures."

A Royal Mail spokesman told the Sunday Times: "We believe we have a strong and compelling argument."

[POSTMAN]

I looked for the sunday times article but you have to pay to read the shite!

[DGP1]

FFS we have known for years that the leeches want PF and GLS, they certainly don't want the RM deliveries, no money in it for them.


ps. The Times can piss away off with their paywall, I hope they fail miserably and have to go back to a free site like everyone else.

On second thoughts, I hope they just fail and piss off back to Austrailia (or the US).

[Night Tonic]

As the broadsheets use extended vocabulary and are not pitching to the x-factor set, you're quite right and probably won't appreciate their content. That just leaves the gutter press to rely on

[arnold cheshire]

they could sell off the multi million pound door to door leaflet part

[DGP1]

As the broadsheets use extended vocabulary and are not pitching to the x-factor set, you're quite right and probably won't appreciate their content. That just leaves the gutter press to rely on

Unlike your preferred reading material.

[Straight4ward]

That just leaves the gutter press to rely on

Reuters
BBC
The Guardian
The Independent
The Daily Telegraph

Yeah, everybody's dumbing down these days.

[barbario]

Oh dear,i wondered how long it would take for this privatisation to run into trouble. If this sell of profitable business goes ahead,what a massive dent that would put on Royal Mail's price tag.

[Lounge Lizard]

"The Commission is understood to be considering whether the Government's plan to take on the group's pension liabilities constitutes state aid" in which case the 1990 to 2003 'Pensions Holiday' amounts to state theft from Royal Mail, but the Commission won't have the sense to realise that the two should balance out.

[Night Tonic]

That won't be relevant. All the commission will be interested in, is if taking on the pension amounts to giving RM a competitive advantage. Who paid what (or not) counts for nothing.

[subbie]

They tried to do this to the Irish when their Bank ran into trouble and needed state aid.

It did'nt happen the Bank was able to keep its other companies.

Subbie

[andy2007]

Ah! But the Bankers (or should that be spelt with a "w"? ) are a special case. The Governments are all scared of upsetting them too much, in case they take their money to other Countries, to avoid whatever measures they introduce. Even when they're technically Bankrupt! (who taught these MPs/MEPs Economics!?! ). Anyone else wouldn't be as lucky IMHO.