Business secretary Kemi Badenoch to carry talks with Royal Mail suitor

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch will meet ‘Czech Sphinx’ Daniel Kretinsky as he presses on with his £3.6bn swoop for Royal Mail.

Badenoch is to hold talks with the tycoon who is on the verge of becoming the first foreign owner of the 500-year-old firm. The meeting is set for the middle of next week, Sky News reported.

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch 

Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) accepted an offer from the billionaire’s investment firm EP Group last month after he made a series of commitments, which include promises on jobs and the UK-wide six-day service.

He has also agreed not to split up Royal Mail’s parent company IDS, which includes European parcels business GLS, for at least three years and to maintain the universal service obligation (USO) and the Royal Mail headquarters in the UK for five years.

Last week Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that regulators should look ‘very carefully’ at the five-year undertakings made by the billionaire.

Kretinsky, who is already IDS’s biggest shareholder and owns significant stakes in Sainsbury’s and West Ham United, this week met the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU, which represents about 100,000 Royal Mail workers, said: ‘We made it very clear that the current commitments from EP Group are neither strong enough nor long enough.’

Since agreeing to buy the company, Kretinsky has hinted that he would be looking to reform the USO. IDS shareholders will vote on the deal at the annual general meeting on September 25.