19th Aug 2014 10:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ministers considered selling the government's whole stake in Royal Mail PLC when the shares were trading close to their post-privatisation peak earlier in the year, but decided not to do so because the move would risk antagonising City investors, Sky News reported Tuesday.
Sky News said the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Shareholder Executive, the body which oversees state-owned assets, discussed the sale of the remaining 30% stake held by taxpayers in Royal Mail in March, five months after the business was listed on the London Stock Exchange.
By deciding against selling off the rest of the stake, ministers effectively forfeited a further GBP500 million gain on the sale of the postal service, Sky News said.
The news could reignite the row over the controversial sell-off of Royal Mail, which has faced criticism from the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee and the National Audit Office that the shares were priced too low when the company was floated in autumn 2013, costing taxpayers GBP1 billion.
http://news.sky.com/story/1321188/ministers-face-new-royal-mail-sell-off-row
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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