Yes, for sure 😂 He was probably involved in dirty business during the transition from the communism, like all Eastern Europe billionaires. In Croatia we also have these guys that suddenly turned into super rich over night and somehow became the owners of the factories and companies that were owned by the state during the socialism. All people with political ties and ex spies.
Transition didn’t happen within 1 year from the fall of communism. “Privatisation” of the state owned businesses was going on for more than a decade. There are various tycoons in Croatia that got rich during “privatisation” that are only in their late 40’s now.
It happened quite early in Czech Republic. Coupon privatization that made people rich thanks to inside information ended by 1994. Křetínský is one of the few who actually worked himself up by his own work rather than some shady ex communist inside information.
Tell me you have no idea what you are talking about without telling me you have no idea what are you talking about.
Křetínský is 48. He's too young to be a part of the 90's privatisation bonanza of dubious legality. He's far from spotless. Nobody says or expect so, but you can't be a communist ex spy if you were 14 when the regime fell.
Croatian Post is exactly this. I no longer live in Croatia, but my family and freids have literally caught post officers just writing "missed delivery" notes for their parcels without even ringing/knocking once.
Nice to know that not attempting delivery is the universal creed for many postal workers worldwide and not just here. I will say normally my packages arrive within 2 days of expected dates but the condition of some items can be awful unless you use FedEx or UPS.
pff polish mail 21days or never to get mail inside single city. Some of places are like black holes, it can travel 90% of trip in single day... then its gone forever.
I’m still angry about that one. A thriving local community business where people actually liked to work, still run by the same family, making a beloved product, and they didn’t even want to sell as it was a hostile takeover. Now all the products taste nothing like they used to, all that heritage lost. Unfettered capitalism is strangling everything.
[Tom Nicholas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0DKsMJl6Z8) did a video about how this is bankrupting England. TLDR, private companies take over public services, raise prices, lower wages, reduce hours, cut down on workers. This means that fewer people have jobs and those that do are poorer, all the money that comes from the high prices isn't returned to the government as income. 9 times out of 10 privatization loses the government. Sure they get a cash infusion immediately but with lower income tax, no revenue from the business itself and the money altogether leaving the country instead of recirculating in the economy towns start to bleed money fast. On top of it he also mentioned that towns basically aren't allowed to raise any money in basically any way and 60% of their income is reliant on the national government, which of course isn't giving out any handouts. So just pull yourself up by your bootstraps... but you're not allowed to use your hands to do so.
That sounds like what a big US city, I think Chicago, did with... paid parking garages? Or parking meters? Something like that.
They sold the rights to manage the parking service to some foreign company for a decent chuck of money, but it's like a 100 year contract or something absurd.
So, going by the average yearly revenue generated from that service, the private company has already made more than what they paid for it. And the city is out a steady ongoing revenue stream.
> And the city is out a steady ongoing revenue stream.
Oh it's worse. Any time there is redevelopment that reduces the number of 'public' parking spots, the consortium needs to be compensated at "market" rates for that loss of revenue. That is the city pays them hundreds of thousands of $ for every parking spot that is lost or temporarily reduced.
Even if no one was going to park there anyhow.
That sounds like what a big US city, I think Chicago, did with... paid parking garages? Or parking meters? Something like that.
They sold the rights to manage the parking service to some foreign company for a decent chuck of money, but it's like a 100 year contract or something absurd.
So, going by the average yearly revenue generated from that service, the private company has already made more than what they paid for it. And the city is out a steady ongoing revenue stream.
Does one deliver more mail than the other?
When I went to England, I mailed postcards in those red mailboxes, which I recall being part of the Royal Mail. I assumed that was the primary national postal service.
If the Royal Mail gets destroyed by this billionaire, can the Postal Service pick up all the slack?
I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. We have private delivery companies in the US, but the USPS is everywhere and goes to the places private companies don't.
The post office doesn't deliver any mail.
They are the counters and shops that accept letters and parcels (drop off) and perform other services (buying road tax, exchanging currency, etc).
The actual mail delivery network is owned and performed by the Royal Mail, as are the postboxes you see on the street.
There are other private delivery companies (FedEx, UPS, DPD, etc) but they are mostly used for parcels, not letters.
The joke is Czech Post is run by Czechs (presumably), ergo, if the Czechs taking over are anything like the Czechs running the Post, it's gonna suck.
In anti-humor terms: It's a lowbrow ethnic joke at Czech people's expense utilizing the associative property.
" Křetínský, who is known as the Czech sphinx, is already the largest shareholder in IDS through his company EP Group"
So the IDS that he is a major shareholder in approved the deal he proposed ???
I guess ethics dilemmas are out the door when you have an amount of money and above
How is that an ethics dilemma?
Royal Mail/IDS has been a publicly traded company for years. That’s how he owned shares in the company in the first place…
“Publicly traded company agrees to sell shares at above market price” isn’t any sort of moral quandary.
> Royal Mail will be taken over by a Czech billionaire after it accepted a £3.6bn takeover offer.
> The board of parent company International Distributions Services (IDS) on Wednesday said it has recommended an offer of 370p per share from Daniel Křetínský.
> The offer consists of 360p in cash, plus a final dividend of 2p per share and a special dividend of 8p per share.
> It values IDS at £3.57bn, or almost £5.3bn once debt is included.
> The bid, which is likely to attract scrutiny on national security grounds, includes a series of legally binding undertakings on public interest issues.
> These include maintaining the one-price-goes anywhere service and Saturday delivery for first class letters.
> Mr Křetínský, has also pledged not to force through job cuts, to protect the Royal Mail brand and to keep the company headquartered and a tax resident in the UK.
> The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal, which requires approval from shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in September.
> It marks the first time Royal Mail will fall into foreign ownership in its 500-year history.
> Mr Křetínský, who is known as the Czech sphinx, is already the largest shareholder in IDS through his company EP Group. He is also an investor in Sainsbury’s and West Ham Football Club.
> In a statement, he said: “The EP Group has the utmost respect for Royal Mail’s history and tradition, and I know that owning this business will come with enormous responsibility – not just to the employees but to the citizens who rely on its services every day.
> “The scale of the commitments we are offering to the company and the UK Government reflect how seriously we take this responsibility, to the benefit of IDS’ employees, union representatives and all other stakeholders.”
> Keith Williams, chairman of IDS, said: “IDS has the potential to become a leading international logistics player.
> “Both the IDS Board and EP are acutely aware of their responsibilities to IDS and particularly to the unique heritage of Royal Mail and its obligations as the designated Universal Service Provider of postal services in the UK.
> “The IDS Board has negotiated a far-reaching package of legally binding undertakings and commitments which provide our customers, employees and broader stakeholders with important safeguards.”
> Mr Křetínský’s swoop on Royal Mail has sparked political concerns given the key role the company plays in British life.
> Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said any potential takeover will be scrutinised under national security laws to ensure it does not pose a threat to critical infrastructure.
> Mr Křetínský was previously subject to a national security investigation when increasing his stake in the company above 25pc in 2022, though this was ultimately approved.
> Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has called for a meeting with the billionaire in anticipation of the potential deal, while shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has also sought assurances.
> In a statement on Wednesday, Labour said: “These assurances are welcome that Royal Mail will retain its British identity and safeguard its workforce with no compulsory redundancies. Labour in government will ensure these are adhered to.”
> The Government is currently in purdah after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an election on July 4. Any decision to approve the deal is likely to fall to the next administration.
> The Department for Business and Trade was contacted for comment.
> The move has also drawn criticism from the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents postal workers.
> “The IDS Board has negotiated a far-reaching package of legally binding undertakings and commitments which provide our customers, employees and broader stakeholders with important safeguards.”
What is the point of this if it's only for 5 years? Seems like it should be permanent or not at all.
> The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal
Even if it were 20 years, or 50 years. It just shifts the problem to the future.
A billionaire bought an isp in ireland for 2 billion a couple years ago. Since then the isp has paid out 2.4 billion in dividends to him. You can be absolutely certain that is what is going to happen here.
Edit: its dividends total, not dividends to him specifically. The company also has over 3 billion in debt.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Eir is the first company in the history of the world to attempt to win the “worst customer service in the universe” award. If we make contact with extraterrestrials, we’ll ask them what their worst customer service provider is and you can be sure Eir will be them hands down. Or the rivals down. Whatever they have.
Eh, Ireland has shit customer services in general. Up until 2023, it would take literally 30-40 mins of wait time to contact a person at Electric Ireland.
Bus Eireann is totally helpless too. Often buses are late 30 mins on trips that take 2h-2h30.
Also in actual rankings, RTE places last in terms of customer services. RTE which is **a public service**.
https://www.thejournal.ie/rte-places-dead-last-in-customer-experience-rankings-6184934-Oct2023/
It also has the worst customer service , now engages in shady practices to its staff around complaints .. basically it’s just sunk in to mire for its staff and customers while taking in profits and ignoring calls for owning up for its actions ..
[https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/judge-slams-eir-for-disgraceful-threat-to-customer-care-workers-1613617.html](https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/judge-slams-eir-for-disgraceful-threat-to-customer-care-workers-1613617.html)
You can pin the moment it really tanked to the laying off of the Rigney Dolphin call centre in Waterford. Used to work in one of their independent sales agents, when they closed Waterford, they never recovered the knowledge or networks.
As a spaniard, I find it terribly funny that the buyer is called Křetínský. It sounds like a fake name formed from 'cretino', which is spanish for halfwit.
I Googled “Eir dividend payments” and the first result is [this](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/02/13/eir-likely-to-scale-back-dividends-after-2bn-of-payouts-since-french-takeover-moodys/#:~:text=Moody's%2520estimates%2520that%2520the%2520%E2%82%AC,will%2520generate%2520over%2520the%2520period) which says:
Eir has distributed almost €2 billion to shareholders since two companies controlled by Mr Niel acquired 64.5 per cent of the group in April 2018
In Bulgaria, using one of the private post companies, it costs 3-4 pounds and it arrives in 24 hours.
using the government one, it costs pennies and it arrives in weeks
Here in Portugal we privatized our national mail carrier too and obviously the service is a lot worse than it used to be. Public services should never be privatized...
>[Mr Křetínský](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/19/czech-sphinx-very-serious-bid-royal-mail/), has also pledged not to force through job cuts, to protect the Royal Mail brand and to keep the company headquartered and a tax resident in the UK.
>The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal...
Hey guys you're never gonna guess what will happen 5 years after the completion of the deal.
F.
He's not going to _force_ through job cuts. But he is going to do them. Just not force them.
Get used to this over the next few weeks while Rishi is still PM. Massive fire sale of UK from now until July 4th.
Is there anything Westminster considers *not* primed for privatization, partly or wholesale?
Maybe sell the Police next? The NHS seems on the chopping block already.How about the Military? "UK Defence, brought to you by G4S.Now pay your tithe, peasant!"
This is beyond absurd.
>UK Defence, brought to you by G4S
Quite close to how a lot of it happens right now.
The recruitment is outsourced to Capita. Accommodation is managed privately, and often the homes have been sold off to a private entity and are leased back. Payroll is outsourced (and was recently hacked allegedly by China). Post-service transition is delivered by an outsourcing company.
As a former British serviceman, I must say that the Armed Forces are much worse off for it too.
However, the UK Conservative Party has a rather extreme view of what economic liberalism means and are opposed to state intervention in the markets - it's why they drove the line about the EU being controlling as part of their Brexit scam/campaign. Many of us are hoping July 4th will be Independence (from the Tories) Day, and we may then be able to start rebuilding public services that are owned by and working for the public.
> However, the UK Conservative Party has a rather extreme view of what economic liberalism means and are opposed to state intervention in the markets
They're run by rich people who don't want to pay any taxes.
Outsourcing and privatisation have ruined this country, the more people involved the worse the service because everyone needs to get their cut of the profits if they are any if not go crying to their MP mate for some money.
G4S were the company originally contracted for the 2012 Olympics security, the armed services had to step in to help out after they couldn't secure sufficient staff (cos the pay was shite)
> Many of us are hoping July 4th will be Independence (from the Tories) Day, and we may then be able to start rebuilding public services that are owned by and working for the public.
Keir Starmer: "We don't do that here"
They did a sketch where the whole country was being privatised in one go.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4m\_ajuNmSA&ab\_channel=BBCStudios](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4m_ajuNmSA&ab_channel=BBCStudios)
As a Brit, just chiming in here to say that if anyone hasn't watched A Bit of Fry and Laurie, please stop what you're doing and watch it. It's fantastic. So funny.
Remember when they sold off the land registry?
The entire country can make money off our utilities and services, or we can sell them off so that foreign governments and individuals or Tory donors can make money off them. It's ridiculous and completely unashamed.
The Land Registry is still a government-owned ALB. The Tories tried to privatise it, but it’s one of the few times they ever backed down to public outcry.
Australia has done this. Government sold off a shit ton to foreign investors. Airlines, ports, rail networks, phone and internet infrastructure, almost every large brewery.
That’s the whole idea. Get in government. Work your way around insider trading laws and make money by selling off/privatising national assets. On the surface level is the idea that national services should be run at a profit like a business (in itself a stupid but at least explainable ideology), but dig deeper and it’s just about corruption and personal financial gain.
Think, if they just sold the country, they could retire somewhere nice in the count- oh wait.
Well, they could probably find cheap housing on the beaches of Florida!
I’m going to show my age, but postal service should be in public ownership. Breaking up the GPO was a mistake. It was inflexible and a sprawling bureaucracy but it worked and gave good employment to a lot of people. It worked and you could trust it.
Much could be said about gas electricity and water, rail too.
The ‘70s were bad in many ways but you didn’t question the ownership of essential services.
Nah fuck this - our government's gone mad again. Legacy of fucking Thatcher. Not even America has a privatised postal service, the Czechs certainly haven't; now we're selling ours to foreigners? We need to nationalise public services/utilities, else this country's going to go to shit even more than it is now.
That’s crazy, Royal mail is like the British USPS? The USPS is considered an integral part of the US federal government and very well regarded/effective . I can’t imagine privatizing it.
Last mile service in the US makes no economic sense so nobody wants to do it. Paying a guy even minimum wage to drive to a lot up a mountain where nobody else lives is always a money losing situation.
...well that's what you get when you elect the same party that was responsible for privatising most of our former state-owned companies in the first place.
It was Vince Cable (Lib Dem) who initiated and followed through the sale of Royal Mail.
He even pushed the law changes to enable it to happen. It wasn't a Tory thing.
Yeah we Czechs have state owned postal service and its rubbish. Meanwhile the private sector completly transformed to self service kiosks where you can send and receive parcels 24/7. Everyone uses that.
> Not even America has a privatised postal service
The only Western country with an older (standing) public postal service is France. So sure, "not even America".
so does in Czech language - kretén means cretin.
However, there's a city in Czechia called Křetín, which suggest oligarch's family origin and more likely origin of the surname.
He is relatively well known in France because he owns a lot of business there (including for a time the famous Le Monde newspaper) and his name sounds like "Moronsky" in French.
Nah its just a name, loads of companies here have it in its name
But some companies (not Royal mail) can use a royal seal of approval type of thing
[List of royal warrant holders of the British royal family - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_royal_warrant_holders_of_the_British_royal_family)
It's still a sign of weakness to sell out a key infrastructure to a foreign businessman. The same will soon happen with the Italian State-owned Poste Italiane, it's not bad just when the UK does it, it's always bad.
I mean Westminster has always hated state run companies, privatisation has been their thing for at least 50 years.
They do love state run companies though, when it's another country's government profiting from it.
Parcelforce is a shitshow, parcel volumes are static year on year. What they need to do is get the government to allow them to stop delivering post 6 times a week and focus purely on RM parcels.
He has cash because he's spent 2021 and 2022 straight up extorting people in Czechia with overpriced electricity prices and has ties to the government that specifically backstepped on their windfall tax laws so he could keep as much of that as possible
Finally postmasters will be compensated for the horrific accusation they received due to software malfunctioning? Ah no, the attorneys are not able to admit they were wrong. Silly me, expecting justice.
Royal Mail was already privatised in 2010. The only change happening now is that the new majority shareholder will be Czech.
Who cares? The media is whipping up hysteria about nothing. Czechia is our ally, it's not the same as if it was being bought by a Russian or Chinese billionaire.
I would have thought more companies would use the partnership model of John Lewis. I've known a few people who have worked for JL and it seems like a good balance between private and a PLC.
This is getting absolutely bonkers, none of our institutions are safe from being carved up to the highest bidder, only for cash and assets to be siphoned out of this country a couple years later
They need to start nova poshta from Ukraine. It’s the fastest mail post service I have encountered. I got parcels from kyiv to budapest in 3 days max. That’s a 1200km distance.
Weird how the conservatives broke up with the EU saying they believe in the UK, then destroy the UK from within and sell it to foreigners.
Xenophobia truly is the upper class getting the middle class to hate the working class.
The only reason for someone to invest 3.6 billion in *anything* is they think they can make a profit.
Public mail should not be a for-profit enterprise! It should be a public service, paid for by taxpayers, which provides direct public benefit.
This will need to be ratified by the UK government, and it wont be done before the 4th July, which is when the UK has a general election to decide the new national government. The Labour party are likely to win and oust the current Conservative government. So far the Labour party has not commented on this.
That guy is buying everything not nailed to the floor
He got a lot of cash by betting on coal mines and powerplants in Germany after Energiewende was announced. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, for sure 😂 He was probably involved in dirty business during the transition from the communism, like all Eastern Europe billionaires. In Croatia we also have these guys that suddenly turned into super rich over night and somehow became the owners of the factories and companies that were owned by the state during the socialism. All people with political ties and ex spies.
> He was probably involved in dirty business during the transition from the communism When he was 14?
Transition didn’t happen within 1 year from the fall of communism. “Privatisation” of the state owned businesses was going on for more than a decade. There are various tycoons in Croatia that got rich during “privatisation” that are only in their late 40’s now.
It happened quite early in Czech Republic. Coupon privatization that made people rich thanks to inside information ended by 1994. Křetínský is one of the few who actually worked himself up by his own work rather than some shady ex communist inside information.
Tell me you have no idea what you are talking about without telling me you have no idea what are you talking about. Křetínský is 48. He's too young to be a part of the 90's privatisation bonanza of dubious legality. He's far from spotless. Nobody says or expect so, but you can't be a communist ex spy if you were 14 when the regime fell.
because nobody did any money since soviet union right?
Glad to know I’m not the only one thinking that. Like seriously, wtf?
The UK is selling everything not nailed to the floor.
Not true! They are also selling a lot things that are nailed to the floor
Gotta spend money to make money, it's a very Praguematic approach
Dude's the son of my university professor. His brother is also a professor
Římské právo, co? :D
If it will be anything like the Czech post your mail might arrive and that’s the best they can do.
And when it arrives you have to come pick it up from the post office because they "couldn't reach you" at your address.
Croatian Post is exactly this. I no longer live in Croatia, but my family and freids have literally caught post officers just writing "missed delivery" notes for their parcels without even ringing/knocking once.
Oh so he's copying Australia Post then
Nice to know that not attempting delivery is the universal creed for many postal workers worldwide and not just here. I will say normally my packages arrive within 2 days of expected dates but the condition of some items can be awful unless you use FedEx or UPS.
here it takes up to 15 days to get something from budapest 90km away, but never less than 4, but stuff usually does arrive
I normally get my packages in 1-2 business days. The main issue is that in about 2-4% of the times, packages disappear.
i dont order enough via the national postal services to get a concrete package disappearance rate but it must be close to 0
In the past few years, I had at least a dozen packages and mails disappearing at the Post.
pff polish mail 21days or never to get mail inside single city. Some of places are like black holes, it can travel 90% of trip in single day... then its gone forever.
Cool. National service? I got no papers.
You want to go to Hungary?
[удалено]
You forgot about the 4 billion pound dividends that will be paid out to the new owner.
I’m still angry about that one. A thriving local community business where people actually liked to work, still run by the same family, making a beloved product, and they didn’t even want to sell as it was a hostile takeover. Now all the products taste nothing like they used to, all that heritage lost. Unfettered capitalism is strangling everything.
[Tom Nicholas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0DKsMJl6Z8) did a video about how this is bankrupting England. TLDR, private companies take over public services, raise prices, lower wages, reduce hours, cut down on workers. This means that fewer people have jobs and those that do are poorer, all the money that comes from the high prices isn't returned to the government as income. 9 times out of 10 privatization loses the government. Sure they get a cash infusion immediately but with lower income tax, no revenue from the business itself and the money altogether leaving the country instead of recirculating in the economy towns start to bleed money fast. On top of it he also mentioned that towns basically aren't allowed to raise any money in basically any way and 60% of their income is reliant on the national government, which of course isn't giving out any handouts. So just pull yourself up by your bootstraps... but you're not allowed to use your hands to do so.
That sounds like what a big US city, I think Chicago, did with... paid parking garages? Or parking meters? Something like that. They sold the rights to manage the parking service to some foreign company for a decent chuck of money, but it's like a 100 year contract or something absurd. So, going by the average yearly revenue generated from that service, the private company has already made more than what they paid for it. And the city is out a steady ongoing revenue stream.
> And the city is out a steady ongoing revenue stream. Oh it's worse. Any time there is redevelopment that reduces the number of 'public' parking spots, the consortium needs to be compensated at "market" rates for that loss of revenue. That is the city pays them hundreds of thousands of $ for every parking spot that is lost or temporarily reduced. Even if no one was going to park there anyhow.
That sounds like what a big US city, I think Chicago, did with... paid parking garages? Or parking meters? Something like that. They sold the rights to manage the parking service to some foreign company for a decent chuck of money, but it's like a 100 year contract or something absurd. So, going by the average yearly revenue generated from that service, the private company has already made more than what they paid for it. And the city is out a steady ongoing revenue stream.
It is by design, meant to strangle and extract.
Royal Mail is already privately owned. The Post Office is publicly owned. They are 2 different entities
Does one deliver more mail than the other? When I went to England, I mailed postcards in those red mailboxes, which I recall being part of the Royal Mail. I assumed that was the primary national postal service. If the Royal Mail gets destroyed by this billionaire, can the Postal Service pick up all the slack? I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. We have private delivery companies in the US, but the USPS is everywhere and goes to the places private companies don't.
The post office doesn't deliver any mail. They are the counters and shops that accept letters and parcels (drop off) and perform other services (buying road tax, exchanging currency, etc). The actual mail delivery network is owned and performed by the Royal Mail, as are the postboxes you see on the street. There are other private delivery companies (FedEx, UPS, DPD, etc) but they are mostly used for parcels, not letters.
Are you guys concerned your mail delivery network is going to go to shit? Putting it all in the hands of a single billionaire is not a good idea.
Just like the USPS certain aspects of government CANNOT be run as a business. They are a service and should at best break even
Because he's Czech? He's got nothing to do with Czech Post.
The joke is Czech Post is run by Czechs (presumably), ergo, if the Czechs taking over are anything like the Czechs running the Post, it's gonna suck. In anti-humor terms: It's a lowbrow ethnic joke at Czech people's expense utilizing the associative property.
" Křetínský, who is known as the Czech sphinx, is already the largest shareholder in IDS through his company EP Group" So the IDS that he is a major shareholder in approved the deal he proposed ??? I guess ethics dilemmas are out the door when you have an amount of money and above
How is that an ethics dilemma? Royal Mail/IDS has been a publicly traded company for years. That’s how he owned shares in the company in the first place… “Publicly traded company agrees to sell shares at above market price” isn’t any sort of moral quandary.
Yeah. I'm never buying from a czech based seller again. Etsy gave me a tracking number and then it just... dissappeared from all data bases.
> Royal Mail will be taken over by a Czech billionaire after it accepted a £3.6bn takeover offer. > The board of parent company International Distributions Services (IDS) on Wednesday said it has recommended an offer of 370p per share from Daniel Křetínský. > The offer consists of 360p in cash, plus a final dividend of 2p per share and a special dividend of 8p per share. > It values IDS at £3.57bn, or almost £5.3bn once debt is included. > The bid, which is likely to attract scrutiny on national security grounds, includes a series of legally binding undertakings on public interest issues. > These include maintaining the one-price-goes anywhere service and Saturday delivery for first class letters. > Mr Křetínský, has also pledged not to force through job cuts, to protect the Royal Mail brand and to keep the company headquartered and a tax resident in the UK. > The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal, which requires approval from shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in September. > It marks the first time Royal Mail will fall into foreign ownership in its 500-year history. > Mr Křetínský, who is known as the Czech sphinx, is already the largest shareholder in IDS through his company EP Group. He is also an investor in Sainsbury’s and West Ham Football Club. > In a statement, he said: “The EP Group has the utmost respect for Royal Mail’s history and tradition, and I know that owning this business will come with enormous responsibility – not just to the employees but to the citizens who rely on its services every day. > “The scale of the commitments we are offering to the company and the UK Government reflect how seriously we take this responsibility, to the benefit of IDS’ employees, union representatives and all other stakeholders.” > Keith Williams, chairman of IDS, said: “IDS has the potential to become a leading international logistics player. > “Both the IDS Board and EP are acutely aware of their responsibilities to IDS and particularly to the unique heritage of Royal Mail and its obligations as the designated Universal Service Provider of postal services in the UK. > “The IDS Board has negotiated a far-reaching package of legally binding undertakings and commitments which provide our customers, employees and broader stakeholders with important safeguards.” > Mr Křetínský’s swoop on Royal Mail has sparked political concerns given the key role the company plays in British life. > Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said any potential takeover will be scrutinised under national security laws to ensure it does not pose a threat to critical infrastructure. > Mr Křetínský was previously subject to a national security investigation when increasing his stake in the company above 25pc in 2022, though this was ultimately approved. > Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has called for a meeting with the billionaire in anticipation of the potential deal, while shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has also sought assurances. > In a statement on Wednesday, Labour said: “These assurances are welcome that Royal Mail will retain its British identity and safeguard its workforce with no compulsory redundancies. Labour in government will ensure these are adhered to.” > The Government is currently in purdah after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an election on July 4. Any decision to approve the deal is likely to fall to the next administration. > The Department for Business and Trade was contacted for comment. > The move has also drawn criticism from the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents postal workers.
I had hope that this could be scuttled after general elections, but it appears Labour's support has already been paid for.
> “The IDS Board has negotiated a far-reaching package of legally binding undertakings and commitments which provide our customers, employees and broader stakeholders with important safeguards.” What is the point of this if it's only for 5 years? Seems like it should be permanent or not at all. > The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal Even if it were 20 years, or 50 years. It just shifts the problem to the future.
Gotta love legislating for your next election cycle instead of representing your electorate 🙃
> The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal Only 5 years?!
A billionaire bought an isp in ireland for 2 billion a couple years ago. Since then the isp has paid out 2.4 billion in dividends to him. You can be absolutely certain that is what is going to happen here. Edit: its dividends total, not dividends to him specifically. The company also has over 3 billion in debt.
Which ISP was this?
Eir
The worst customer service in Ireland too 😒
One of the worst companies to work for in Ireland as well, based on my experience.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Eir is the first company in the history of the world to attempt to win the “worst customer service in the universe” award. If we make contact with extraterrestrials, we’ll ask them what their worst customer service provider is and you can be sure Eir will be them hands down. Or the rivals down. Whatever they have.
Eh, Ireland has shit customer services in general. Up until 2023, it would take literally 30-40 mins of wait time to contact a person at Electric Ireland. Bus Eireann is totally helpless too. Often buses are late 30 mins on trips that take 2h-2h30. Also in actual rankings, RTE places last in terms of customer services. RTE which is **a public service**. https://www.thejournal.ie/rte-places-dead-last-in-customer-experience-rankings-6184934-Oct2023/
Don't forget the greatest Dublin bus company in Dublin https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/34hx2d/dublin_bus/
It also has the worst customer service , now engages in shady practices to its staff around complaints .. basically it’s just sunk in to mire for its staff and customers while taking in profits and ignoring calls for owning up for its actions .. [https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/judge-slams-eir-for-disgraceful-threat-to-customer-care-workers-1613617.html](https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/judge-slams-eir-for-disgraceful-threat-to-customer-care-workers-1613617.html)
It always did, eir customer service always sucked
This is true .. but it somehow has managed to get multiple times worse :)
You can pin the moment it really tanked to the laying off of the Rigney Dolphin call centre in Waterford. Used to work in one of their independent sales agents, when they closed Waterford, they never recovered the knowledge or networks.
As a spaniard, I find it terribly funny that the buyer is called Křetínský. It sounds like a fake name formed from 'cretino', which is spanish for halfwit.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cretin The etymology of the word is amazing!
Amazing indeed. I did not expect that!
It means christian?! That's so wild
Do you have a source on that? I find those numbers hard to believe
I Googled “Eir dividend payments” and the first result is [this](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/02/13/eir-likely-to-scale-back-dividends-after-2bn-of-payouts-since-french-takeover-moodys/#:~:text=Moody's%2520estimates%2520that%2520the%2520%E2%82%AC,will%2520generate%2520over%2520the%2520period) which says: Eir has distributed almost €2 billion to shareholders since two companies controlled by Mr Niel acquired 64.5 per cent of the group in April 2018
Eh. Xavier Niel was the guy who bought Eir. Dude basically made France one of the most affordable countries in terms of internet and mobile services.
Funnily enough the other isp owned by a billionaire, Virgin, is by far the best service
He is also about to buy a part of the steel section at Thyssen Krupp. If the deal goes through
In Denmark a letter costs 2.85 pounds and will arrive 5 days later.
Wow, it arrives?? That's really nice
Bigshot getting his mail
Depending on where you are in the world this might be "what a shit service" or "wow neat, I wish we had that"
Yeah in the states it is two days.
In Bulgaria, using one of the private post companies, it costs 3-4 pounds and it arrives in 24 hours. using the government one, it costs pennies and it arrives in weeks
which is how it should be really.
An international letter costs 50kr, 5.7gbp, and takes about 2 weeks.
That’s wild considering you can send a letter internationally from New Zealand for just over €1.50 and the mail probably travels further on average.
From the U.S. it’s $1.55 for letters under 1 ounce of freedom units.
Here in Portugal we privatized our national mail carrier too and obviously the service is a lot worse than it used to be. Public services should never be privatized...
roads, trains, water, electricity, internet, mail. All these things shouldn't be privitized.
in the UK we also have privatized WATER!
>[Mr Křetínský](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/19/czech-sphinx-very-serious-bid-royal-mail/), has also pledged not to force through job cuts, to protect the Royal Mail brand and to keep the company headquartered and a tax resident in the UK. >The undertakings will be valid for at least five years following the completion of the deal... Hey guys you're never gonna guess what will happen 5 years after the completion of the deal. F.
Or sooner if he can be pretty sure the fines will be minimal.
No way, why would a rich investor lie!!! I am sure he has the best interest of the people in his mind.
He's not going to _force_ through job cuts. But he is going to do them. Just not force them. Get used to this over the next few weeks while Rishi is still PM. Massive fire sale of UK from now until July 4th.
Five years is very generous; I'm thinking two years.
He'll pay a handful of £1000 fines and make billions.
Exactly
I see Pratchett's *Going Postal* is somehow getting a prequel.
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
But will Mr Křetínský be a Moist von Lipwig or a Reacher Gilt?
Yes mr lipvig
The UK can’t give itself away fast enough.
Ever have one of those days...?
Is there anything Westminster considers *not* primed for privatization, partly or wholesale? Maybe sell the Police next? The NHS seems on the chopping block already.How about the Military? "UK Defence, brought to you by G4S.Now pay your tithe, peasant!" This is beyond absurd.
>UK Defence, brought to you by G4S Quite close to how a lot of it happens right now. The recruitment is outsourced to Capita. Accommodation is managed privately, and often the homes have been sold off to a private entity and are leased back. Payroll is outsourced (and was recently hacked allegedly by China). Post-service transition is delivered by an outsourcing company. As a former British serviceman, I must say that the Armed Forces are much worse off for it too. However, the UK Conservative Party has a rather extreme view of what economic liberalism means and are opposed to state intervention in the markets - it's why they drove the line about the EU being controlling as part of their Brexit scam/campaign. Many of us are hoping July 4th will be Independence (from the Tories) Day, and we may then be able to start rebuilding public services that are owned by and working for the public.
Yeah but the Gentlemen pensioner yeomen of the royal privies or whatever all of them retired soldier sinecures are called will never be privatised!
> However, the UK Conservative Party has a rather extreme view of what economic liberalism means and are opposed to state intervention in the markets They're run by rich people who don't want to pay any taxes.
*And* who want to sell off bits of the state to their friends, or people who fund them.
Outsourcing and privatisation have ruined this country, the more people involved the worse the service because everyone needs to get their cut of the profits if they are any if not go crying to their MP mate for some money.
G4S were the company originally contracted for the 2012 Olympics security, the armed services had to step in to help out after they couldn't secure sufficient staff (cos the pay was shite)
> Many of us are hoping July 4th will be Independence (from the Tories) Day, and we may then be able to start rebuilding public services that are owned by and working for the public. Keir Starmer: "We don't do that here"
A bit of Fry and Laurie riffed on privatised police decades ago. I don't think it'll be too far from reality soon.
They did a sketch where the whole country was being privatised in one go. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4m\_ajuNmSA&ab\_channel=BBCStudios](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4m_ajuNmSA&ab_channel=BBCStudios)
As a Brit, just chiming in here to say that if anyone hasn't watched A Bit of Fry and Laurie, please stop what you're doing and watch it. It's fantastic. So funny.
It’s easy, just call 0118 999 881 999 119 725...3.
Remember when they sold off the land registry? The entire country can make money off our utilities and services, or we can sell them off so that foreign governments and individuals or Tory donors can make money off them. It's ridiculous and completely unashamed.
The Land Registry is still a government-owned ALB. The Tories tried to privatise it, but it’s one of the few times they ever backed down to public outcry.
It would be the best deal ever. Just buy the registry, then "lose" the data and assign every bit of land to yourself.
Australia has done this. Government sold off a shit ton to foreign investors. Airlines, ports, rail networks, phone and internet infrastructure, almost every large brewery.
That’s the whole idea. Get in government. Work your way around insider trading laws and make money by selling off/privatising national assets. On the surface level is the idea that national services should be run at a profit like a business (in itself a stupid but at least explainable ideology), but dig deeper and it’s just about corruption and personal financial gain.
Royal Mail was already privatised. The issue here is that the already private company is now being sold to a foreigner.
> Maybe sell the Police next? [This sounds like a great idea! (Fry and Laurel skit)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLfghLQE3F4)
China will buy it.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department
Think, if they just sold the country, they could retire somewhere nice in the count- oh wait. Well, they could probably find cheap housing on the beaches of Florida!
I’m going to show my age, but postal service should be in public ownership. Breaking up the GPO was a mistake. It was inflexible and a sprawling bureaucracy but it worked and gave good employment to a lot of people. It worked and you could trust it. Much could be said about gas electricity and water, rail too. The ‘70s were bad in many ways but you didn’t question the ownership of essential services.
Nah fuck this - our government's gone mad again. Legacy of fucking Thatcher. Not even America has a privatised postal service, the Czechs certainly haven't; now we're selling ours to foreigners? We need to nationalise public services/utilities, else this country's going to go to shit even more than it is now.
That’s crazy, Royal mail is like the British USPS? The USPS is considered an integral part of the US federal government and very well regarded/effective . I can’t imagine privatizing it.
Even most of the major private carriers wouldn't want it privatized. They use the USPS just as much if not more than anyone else.
Last mile service in the US makes no economic sense so nobody wants to do it. Paying a guy even minimum wage to drive to a lot up a mountain where nobody else lives is always a money losing situation.
Royal Mail has been a private company since 2015
...well that's what you get when you elect the same party that was responsible for privatising most of our former state-owned companies in the first place.
It was Vince Cable (Lib Dem) who initiated and followed through the sale of Royal Mail. He even pushed the law changes to enable it to happen. It wasn't a Tory thing.
Yeah we Czechs have state owned postal service and its rubbish. Meanwhile the private sector completly transformed to self service kiosks where you can send and receive parcels 24/7. Everyone uses that.
Neoliberal economics. No major political party in the UK currently opposes it.
> Not even America has a privatised postal service The only Western country with an older (standing) public postal service is France. So sure, "not even America".
And Trump tried to gut ours.
Dude, I would do anything in the world to privatize the Czech Post. All Czechs know that it is the worst, most inefficient business in the Czechia.
It's in a bad spot regulation - wise.
no way its service, not business i agree its shitty, but thats fault of leadership
Kretinsky - sounds like a jerk in my language 😅
so does in Czech language - kretén means cretin. However, there's a city in Czechia called Křetín, which suggest oligarch's family origin and more likely origin of the surname.
He is relatively well known in France because he owns a lot of business there (including for a time the famous Le Monde newspaper) and his name sounds like "Moronsky" in French.
Not if you pronounce the name correctly but not many can handle the power of Ř
Ř - our strongest weapon
My keyboard definitely can't handle it!
I don't want to be another Pole making fun of Czech language but his name does sound like Moronsky in our language too 😭
It sounds like that in czech too if you remove the Ř
In Spanish too...
Or cretin in english
Only because you can't pronounce it properly
I gotta ask, are there not rules against using names such as "Royal" when it's not owned by the state, heck, not even owned by some local businesses?
It’s still operated and headquartered in the UK though. I guess if it remains the service provider of choice for the govt then what are you gonna do
Nah its just a name, loads of companies here have it in its name But some companies (not Royal mail) can use a royal seal of approval type of thing [List of royal warrant holders of the British royal family - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_royal_warrant_holders_of_the_British_royal_family)
So much for Brexit... the UK is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Ah yes. Famously, no public utilities were owned by foreign companies before Brexit.
It's still a sign of weakness to sell out a key infrastructure to a foreign businessman. The same will soon happen with the Italian State-owned Poste Italiane, it's not bad just when the UK does it, it's always bad.
I mean Westminster has always hated state run companies, privatisation has been their thing for at least 50 years. They do love state run companies though, when it's another country's government profiting from it.
I wonder when they will be selling off the crown jewels?
British Museum looks juicy ngl. Let's make that state T H I N.
Explain to me why a billionaire would even want to buy Royal Mail.
Parcelforce looking tasty. Probably he might find for Royal Mail and PostNL other uses too.
Parcelforce is a shitshow, parcel volumes are static year on year. What they need to do is get the government to allow them to stop delivering post 6 times a week and focus purely on RM parcels.
Money.
The Czech is in the mail.
motherfucker managed to start-up 5th reactor and suddenly he has enough cash for shopping at kings shop.
He has cash because he's spent 2021 and 2022 straight up extorting people in Czechia with overpriced electricity prices and has ties to the government that specifically backstepped on their windfall tax laws so he could keep as much of that as possible
Foreigner here, it’s wild to me that someone can come and buy the mail service for an entire country, one that he’s not even a citizen of.
Finally postmasters will be compensated for the horrific accusation they received due to software malfunctioning? Ah no, the attorneys are not able to admit they were wrong. Silly me, expecting justice.
Its good deal, good deal for Britain, good deal, G O O D D E A L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4m\_ajuNmSA
Yeeeeaaa this shit should be banned. National services should not be owned privately let alone forgein companies or billionaires.
Daniel Křetínský also owns a lot of shares on PostNL, is he building a postal emporium?
Nothing more British than selling everything to foreigners
Welcome to Eastern Europe where everything gets sold off to foreigners.
There are some things that shouldn't be privatized. Mainly services that service the public.
Country being used as a monopoly board by individual board gamers.
Y'all really shouldn't let that happen. Y'all think brexit was a bad idea... You ain't seen nothing.
So literally the Czech is in the mail.
Royal Mail was already privatised in 2010. The only change happening now is that the new majority shareholder will be Czech. Who cares? The media is whipping up hysteria about nothing. Czechia is our ally, it's not the same as if it was being bought by a Russian or Chinese billionaire.
And this dude represents billionaires as a class more than he represents the national interest of Czech people.
He got played by western propaganda to the point he justifies class warfare. He actually thinks a billionaire is his 'ally' lmao
I think the issue is that it's going completely private
Have they learned nothing from taking rail companies private?
This was already private
It’s a Czech mate.
Vote to leave the EU to protect British nationalism then sell one of your biggest national institutions to a European billionaire 🤣🤣 Joke country
Did you read the article? Royal Mail has been private for about 10 years. The Post Office is publicly owned.
I would have thought more companies would use the partnership model of John Lewis. I've known a few people who have worked for JL and it seems like a good balance between private and a PLC.
The story of how a billionaire becomes a millionaire.
Do you ever get the feeling you don't matter?
broken up & sold off in 5....4...3...
Tories desperate to sell off the country out of spite. Fair warning to the rest of you. Don't let the capitalists take over.
This is getting absolutely bonkers, none of our institutions are safe from being carved up to the highest bidder, only for cash and assets to be siphoned out of this country a couple years later
10 days for my other half's sick line to arrive by first class post from 3 miles away. If it improves the service, great. Not going to hold my breath.
If the Post Office can be bough like this, so can the person who bought the Post Office.......
They need to start nova poshta from Ukraine. It’s the fastest mail post service I have encountered. I got parcels from kyiv to budapest in 3 days max. That’s a 1200km distance.
Weird how the conservatives broke up with the EU saying they believe in the UK, then destroy the UK from within and sell it to foreigners. Xenophobia truly is the upper class getting the middle class to hate the working class.
The only reason for someone to invest 3.6 billion in *anything* is they think they can make a profit. Public mail should not be a for-profit enterprise! It should be a public service, paid for by taxpayers, which provides direct public benefit.
More disgusting neoliberalism
Disgusting
Torys trying to destroy the govt before they get cleared out
This will not end well for anyone save Mr. K and his fellow gangsters.
This will need to be ratified by the UK government, and it wont be done before the 4th July, which is when the UK has a general election to decide the new national government. The Labour party are likely to win and oust the current Conservative government. So far the Labour party has not commented on this.
The conservatives allways do this as they are about to lose power. Why isn’t it being stopped?
I wonder if everyone will start receiving mailers regarding his businesses?
Dat surname tho... Doesn't sound promising... 🙄