ALEX BRUMMER thinks there is nothing good about Daniel Kretinsky’s offer for Royal Mail

Government activity comes to a standstill during general election campaigns, when Whitehall and non-governmental organisations go into purdah.

This has given City bankers and advisers the opportunity to press ahead with under-the-radar deals and offers.

There is no more significant transaction at the moment than the proposed takeover of International Distribution Services (IDS) – owner of the Royal Mail – by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his financial backers J&T, a subsidiary of a secretive private investment bank based in Slovakia.

The publication of a complex 137-page offer document, backed by the weak board of the company that owns Royal Mail, in the midst of a government blockade, is a mistake.

There is a risk of making the takeover a fait accompli before the intense scrutiny promised in Labour’s manifesto can take place.

A new administration is unlikely to prioritize vetting a potential takeover when it has major matters of state to manage — from forming a cabinet to stabilising the economy and reaching out to global allies — all amid a war in Europe and the Middle East.

The entire Royal Mail takeover proposal is a disgrace. An institution with a 500-year history and a universal service obligation risks being handed over to foreign buyers, one of which, the part of J&T carrying out the bid, was formed just three years ago. How is it possible for something like this to happen?

The stakes weigh heavily against the boards of directors of public companies, even if they are willing to engage in fistfights.

As for Royal Mail chairman Keith Williams, its German chief executive Martin Seidenberg and the rest of the board, including non-executive director Sarah Hogg, it has been a case of “come and get us”.

To understand why there is so little resistance to the deal, one need only look at the advisers’ fantastic profits.

Those representing the owner of Royal Mail, including Barclays, will receive £56.9m.

With so much cash on the table, one can understand why they could have told the board that it was their fiduciary duty to concede to the offer.

This is despite the fact that, for most of its existence as a public company, Royal Mail shares have traded above 400p, well above the offer price of 360p (which includes a final dividend ).

The fees, including the cost of banking arrangements for advisers to Kretinsky’s EP UK group and its motley backers, amount to £89m.

Bankers, lawyers and communications firms will no doubt be licking their lips at the prospect of a big payday and the prospect of bonuses.

Staff at Royal Mail and GLS, IDS’s rapidly growing European parcel subsidiary, might wonder whether those £146m in fees would have been better spent on investments in artificial intelligence, letter tracking and improving other services.

It’s also worth noting that the incentives for management to take the money and run are powerful.

Seidenberg could get millions of pounds in bonus shares, which are granted with the acquisition, some of which were granted this month.

Anyone hoping for more light to be shed on J&T and its directors Patrik Tkac, Adam Tomis and Libor Kaiser, their business history and the risks associated with legal disputes will be bitterly disappointed.

Disclosure is minimal and sanitised. What is clear is that after the deal the bidders, who will spend £5.3bn on IDS including debt, will be heavily indebted.

Experience from other bank-financed cash deals suggests that commitments made at the time of acquisition, such as maintaining staff and investment, disappear under a sea of ​​interest payments.

Royal Mail workers, who were given 10 per cent of the company at the time of privatisation, are being forced to accept Czech cheques.

Financing is provided by a variety of foreign banks, including BNP Paribas, SocGen, UniCredit and the London branch of Citibank.

There is nothing to like about the Kretinsky deal, and investors should reject an offer that can only result in the ruin of a totemic national institution.

Other utilities that have fallen into overly indebted foreign hands with unfathomable ownership structures, such as Thames Water, offer a salutary lesson. The mail order deal can only end in tears.