18th Jul 2024 14:39
International Distributions Services PLC - London-based letter and package carrier and owner of Royal Mail, Parcelforce and General Logistics Systems - EP Corporate Group AS and J&T Capital Partners AS have 30.9% acceptances for their GBP3.57 billion takeover offer for IDS, to which the IDS board agreed back in May. EP Corporate is the vehicle of billionaire Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky. The acceptances are comprised of the 27.56% stake already held by the bidders and acceptances by other shareholders for 3.37%.
EP Corporate also confirms its intentions for IDS and the commitments it has provided to the UK government regarding maintenance of the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service by Royal Mail. The formal statement follows an interview that Kretinsky gave to the BBC this week in which he promised that Royal Mail will maintain the universal service "as long as I'm alive". However, EP Corporate says it will discuss with the government and regulator Ofcom how to do this "on a sustainable basis".
IDS separately provides a trading update for its financial first quarter, the three months that ended June 30. Group revenue is GBP3.26 billion, up 8.2% from GBP3.01 billion a year before. Royal Mail revenue is up 11% to GBP2.00 billion from GBP1.81 billion. Within Royal Mail, letter revenue grows by 11% to GBP985 million from GBP886 million, bolstered by postal votes and candidate mail ahead of the UK general election on July 4. GLS revenue, all from parcels, is GBP1.26 billion, up 4.8% from GBP1.20 billion.
Current stock price: 342.04 pence, up 1.8% in London on Thursday afternoon
12-month change: up 31%
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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