The European Commission yesterday gave the green light for private equity group CVC CapitalPartners to increase its stake in Belgian Post to 49.9% by buying the holding of Post Danmark.
As part of the agreement leading to the merger of Post Danmark and Sweden’s Posten, CVC soldits 22% stake in the Danish company back to the Danish state. In exchange, it was agreed that PostDanmark would sell its stake in Belgian Post to CVC for €373 million. The two companies had jointlyacquired a 49.9% holding in 2005 under a partial privatisation. The Belgian state remains themajority shareholder in the national postal operator with a 50.1% holding.
The EU executive announced in a brief statement that it had granted clearance under the EUMerger Regulation to the acquisition of joint control of Belgian universal postal services operatorDe Post-La Poste by CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS S.A. (CVC) of Luxembourg and the Belgian State.The operation was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.
CVC has reportedly made a bid of just under £2 billion (€2.3 billion) for a 30% stake inRoyal Mail under the planned partial privatisation of the British national postal operator. Theoffer apparently exceeded that of TNT.
