Czech entrepreneur Daniel Křetínský is now the 80% majority owner of Royal Mail and GLS parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) after nearly all shareholders accepted his £3.6 billion takeover offer by the deadline of April 30, 2025, paving the way for the company to be delisted and a new board to be appointed.
Křetínský’s EP Group, whose £3.6 billion offer for IDS was accepted by the company board last May, had already gained regulatory approvals for the high-profile takeover of the British postal group from the UK government last December, followed by the European Commission and US authorities at the start of this year.
Unconditional offer
IDS announced on Wednesday (April 30) that EP Group subsidiary Bidco now owned 80.06% of its issued share capital and the offer had been declared unconditional. Other shareholders can still accept the offer, however. Once it has more than 90% of shares, Bidco intends a compulsory squeeze-out acquisition of the remaining 10% of shares to obtain full 100% ownership of the company.
In a following step, IDS shares will then be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange on or after June 2, 2025, and will be re-registered as a private limited company.
Moreover, IDS will not publish a preliminary statement of its full-year results for the 2024/25 financial year (ended 30 March 2025) but will publish its annual report and accounts for the financial year in the summer of 2025.
New board line-up
