The sale of Royal Mail’s owner to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has been approved by the UK Government.
The deal, worth £3.6 billion, will see the businessman’s company, EP Group, gain control of the 500-year old postal service.
Here, the PA news agency looks who Mr Kretinsky is and what the new ownership could mean for the historic British company.
– Who is Daniel Kretinsky?
The 49-year-old, known as the “Czech sphinx” reportedly because of his quiet, inscrutable style, built his career as an entrepreneur and lawyer.
He has a net worth of £6 billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, which climbed by £2 billion over the course of a year.
He built his fortune in the energy industry, and has assets spanning the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, the Netherlands and the UK.
They include Eustream, which moves Russian gas via pipelines running through Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Mr Kretinsky already owned a 27% shareholder in Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS) through his company EP Group.
The company has previously highlighted its experience in owning national infrastructure, and said it views IDS as a “strong business with solid foundations and the potential to become one of the leading postal logistics groups in Europe”.
Mr Kretinsky and IDS agreed a deal worth £3.6 billion – or £5.3 billion including debt – in May, but had been waiting for the UK Government to give it the go-ahead.
– What else does he invest in?
Mr Kretinsky is known for having significant interests in football through the ownership of several clubs, including his boyhood club Sparta Prague, as well as a 27% stake in West Ham United.
He has also built up holdings in several well-known British brands, including a 10% stake in supermarket giant Sainsbury’s and sportswear retailer Footlocker.
Mr Kretinsky has a 25% stake in an exclusive private island resort in the Maldives, called Velaa.
And he owns one of Britain’s most expensive homes, the 15-bedroom Heath Hall mansion in Hampstead, which he bought for £65 million in 2015 and reportedly once rented out to Justin Bieber during a UK tour.
The takeover approach attracted significant scrutiny this year, and needed to be sanctioned by the Government given the national importance of Royal Mail and the postal service in the UK.
Mr Kretinsky has indicated that he wants to modernise Royal Mail, including investing in services like parcel lockers to compete with giants like Amazon, Evri and InPost.
EP Group has also previously backed IDS’s ambitions to reform the universal service obligation (USO) which it argued has held back Royal Mail’s transformation and made it harder for it to keep up with rapidly rising competition in the parcels market.
Nevertheless, the firm made a series to commitments to protect Royal Mail, relating to its postal service obligations and UK identity, as part of the agreement with the Government.
The Government will also need to approve any key changes to the delivery firm’s ownership, headquarters location and tax residency.
