Britain Plans I.P.O. for Postal Service

Britain is preparing to privatize Royal Mail, the country’s postal service, whose origins date to 1516 and the carrying of post for Henry VIII and the Tudor court.

The government said on Wednesday that it had appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS as the lead banks to manage a planned initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange later this year.


 Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will also work on the sale. The planned offering could value Royal Mail at about £3 billion ($4.5 billion), according to some analysts.

The government has been considering a sale of Royal Mail for years, but plans became more concrete over the last year when the company’s finances started to improve. Pressure is also growing on the government to find additional savings to reduce the budget deficit.

Mario Dunn, who leads the union’s campaign against the sale, said: “Banks are set to make up to £30 million when the government sells off Royal Mail. Once again consumers will lose out when prices rise and deliveries are reduced but banks make millions.”