WE MUST stop this Royal Mail heist: six reasons why the sale to the Czech tycoon is bad for investors, bad for customers and bad for Britain

The postie, with his all-weather shorts, is so loved in a Hertfordshire village that every Christmas residents buy him a £500 gift voucher, plus champagne and chocolates.

This festive season, love it or hate it, the Royal Mail is an enduring feature of our lives.

Whether one is queuing for an hour and a half to send a gift to a loved one in Australia or shelling out a whopping £13.20 for a book of eight barcoded first-class stamps, most households They have a relationship with the Royal Mail.

There’s nothing better than receiving a handwritten card (even if it’s delayed!) in a time when electronic greetings pile up in your inbox along with scams, junk, and other unwanted messages.

The Royal Mail’s bright red letterboxes with the monarch’s crest, stamps with the king’s head – even the constant annoyance of having to visit often depressed sorting offices to collect parcels – are an immutable aspect of British life.

However, this familiar institution, listed on the London stock exchange as International Distribution Services (IDS), is facing an existential crisis.

Daniel Kretinsky, a Czech billionaire who has had historical entanglements with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, is close to taking control with a £3.6bn takeover bid.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has given his blessing to the deal, naively taking assurances given about the future of the postal service and the way it is run at face value.

If you think postage is too expensive now (at £1.65 for a first-class stamp and 85p for a second-class stamp), wait.

As for delays, Royal Mail was just fined £10.5m for delivering more than one in four first-class letters late. This may also get even worse under Czech ownership, as Kretinsky is likely to try to maximize its profits and reduce its service commitments.

Yet our talkative, insensitive and business-naive Labor politicians don’t seem to care.

Reynolds has declared potential buyer Kretinsky a “legitimate businessman.”

Scrutiny by a government investigation, under the terms of the National Security and Investment Law, failed to abort the deal.

There are six good reasons why the government, the public, officials and shareholders should have told Kretinsky to raise:

1) Russian connections

Kretinsky, 49, who heads the buying consortium, is a multimillionaire. He has accumulated much of his wealth thanks to energy and pipeline deals with Russian President Putin, currently sanctioned by the West.

He is still entangled in a long and complex legal dispute in Russia over the fate of his coal interests.

Kretinsky has been backed in his deal, which includes ownership of West Ham United FC, by the elusive Slovak investment bank J&T, which is embroiled in an ongoing legal case of alleged corruption in the distant Turks and Caicos Islands.

2) Debt pile

The bid will be financed by around £3 billion in high-interest loans from foreign banks.

This comes on top of £2bn of debts already on the balance sheet of Royal Mail owner IDS.

These highly leveraged, debt-driven takeovers by uncaring foreign financiers have a terrible track record.

The implosion of Thames Water, which is currently awaiting a bailout, has been driven by the need to meet interest on a £16bn debt.

The result is underinvestment in repairing leaking pipes and tons of wastewater being dumped into the River Thames. At grocery store Asda, a highly leveraged takeover has caused the group to suffer a calamitous decline in sales, market share and reputation.

3) security

The Royal Mail’s roots date back 500 years to a “secure” courier service for King Henry VIII.

Centuries later, it’s how vital public services like HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, the NHS and other parts of government communicate with us securely in an age of internet scams.

Of course, it is also key to voting by mail and, therefore, to our democratic process. Most households in Britain will be familiar with the windowed brown envelopes arriving at our door.

4) Culture

Royal Mail is one of the most recognized brands in the United Kingdom.

The postie in shorts, whatever the weather, is a visitor we eagerly await, especially in the run-up to Christmas, New Year’s Eve or a birthday.

The Royal Family is celebrated with a figure, dating back to Queen Victoria, on bright red postboxes in every town, city and village up and down the UK.

Stamps decorated with the head of the monarch are liked by all school collectors.

Celebrating everyone from Sir Winston Churchill to the fictional Harry Potter, the commemorations offer snapshots of everything that makes Britain great.

The price of a first class stamp may seem high at £1.65, but the service will be delivered to the most remote areas of the country (mostly!) the next day.

No other commercial service would offer this. This uniquely British heritage is unlikely to mean as much if Royal Mail were to become just another outpost in Kretinsky’s business empire that has spread from its roots in Eastern Europe.

You can also try to maximize your profits by cutting services and increasing stamp prices.

5) Investors

Shareholders, including postal officials and other employees who own almost 5 percent of the shares, risk being defrauded.

A group of activist investors believe that if the regulator, Ofcom, gives permission to Royal Mail to be more flexible on the price of first class deliveries and the regularity of second class service, then Kretinsky’s offer price of 370 pence per share will prove to be a bargain. for him.

They also think that Royal Mail will have been sold for much less than it is actually worth.

In that case, the board, led by former British Airways boss Keith Williams, should withdraw its support or resign, rather than allowing shareholders to fall short.

6) City sewing

Advisory firms such as Goldman Sachs, lawyers, banks and consultants are in line to collect mouth-watering fees of £146m if the deal goes ahead.

They have no pride in a band of British heritage and will inform the board that they have no choice – saying it is their fiduciary duty (obligation under company law) – but to accept the offer.

It’s nothing like that. Stock market history tells us that brave boards like pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, mining company Anglo American and others stand firm and reject unsatisfactory deals.

This shows respect for your company’s history and a commitment to doing your job, which is creating value for your own shareholders, rather than selling out.

Too many foreign takeovers of British companies such as Thames Water, Heathrow Airport and Arm Holdings have been bad for investors, bad for customers and bad for Britain.

There is still time to finish the bid for Royal Mail.