Last hope of Royal Mail rescue lies in... Brussels
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Royal Mail could be saved from a rapacious takeover bid by Daniel Kretinsky by European Union competition watchdogs, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The investigation by EU authorities comes as scrutiny of the Czech billionaire’s business links to Russia intensifies.
Kretinsky, 49, wants to snap up the company in a £3.6billion deal. If he succeeds, Royal Mail would fall into foreign hands for the first time in its 508-year history. The Labour Government is thought to be likely to wave through the deal in the coming weeks. However, European competition authorities – whose investigation began at the end of the summer – are set to take a much harder line.
Kretinsky already owns a majority stake in Dutch mail service PostNL. The European Commission is investigating whether a takeover of Royal Mail, combined with his interests in the Netherlands, would give him too much market power. Bidder: Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
Some experts believe that Kretinsky – nicknamed the Czech Sphinx for his inscrutable demeanour – is aiming to combine PostNL with Royal Mail’s hugely profitable European parcels arm GLS. A competition lawyer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The UK regulators are just one bit of the jigsaw. The European Commission really has teeth, and I think Kretinsky and his team will secretly be more worried about them.’.
The investigation by the EU comes amid rising concerns over Kretinsky’s connections to Russia. Accounts for EP Group, the holding company for his business empire, reveal that one of his commodity trading firms is in a £174million dispute with a Russian company after it did not fulfil a coal contract when the war in Ukraine began in 2022.
