Business

Royal Mail to go on sale with £3.3bn price tag

Government to dispose of majority stake as company makes market debut next month

A Royal Mail van passes the Houses of Parliament in central London. Britain has embarked on its largest privatisation in decades as the government unveiled plans to sell the majority of the near 500-year-old state-owned Royal Mail postal service. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

Fri Sep 27 2013 - 10:00

The British government said today it expected the Royal Mail postal service to be valued at as much as £3.3 billion when it makes its London stock market debut next month.

Kicking off the sale of the near 500-year-old state-owned company, the government said it would dispose of a majority stake in Royal Mail, offering shares at between 260 pence and 330p each.

The offer, which closes on Oct. 8, will see the government selling between 40.1 per cent and 52.2 per cent of Royal Mail. On top of this, it has agreed to give away 10 per cent of the company’s shares to staff in the largest share giveaway of any major UK privatisation.

Members of the public will also be able to buy shares in Royal Mail, provided they spend a minimum of £750. The government estimated around 70 per cent of the shares would go to institutional investors.

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The government said based on its plan to pay a full-year 2014 dividend payout totalling 200 million pounds, the offer price range gave Royal Mail an implied dividend yield of between 6.1 per cent and 7.7 per cent.

Goldman Sachs and UBS are running the sale of Royal Mail, which is expected to make its stock market debut on October 11th.

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