Tag: Royal Mail

Royal Mail’s hopes of giving shares to its employees looked doomed last night after the Conservatives told The Times that they had misgivings over backing the necessary legislation. If the Tories oppose the plans, defeat in the House of Commons appears inevitable because of the huge opposition to the plan from Labour backbenchers. Some 186 Labour MPs have signed an early-day motion opposing any issuance of shares, out of a total of 198 signatures against. Nick Brown, the former minister and ally of the Chancellor, is the latest big name to join the opposition. The number backing the motion is more than half of the parliamentary party and is the majority of those Labour MPs eligible to sign, given that members of the Government and their parliamentary aides are not free to back such motions.

Ian Griffiths, Group Managing Director of GKN Automotive, has been appointed Managing Director of Royal Mail Letters, it was announced today. Reporting to Adam Crozier, Royal Mail’s Group Chief Executive, Mr Griffiths will have day-to-day responsibility for the delivery of Royal Mail’s annual postbag of more than 20 billion letters. Mr Griffiths will be joining the board of Royal Mail Holdings plc, chaired by Allan Leighton, and he will also sit on the company’s Management Board, which is chaired by Mr Crozier. He is expected to take up the appointment early next year.

Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail, last nightscotched reports that the Government had agreed to hand over pounds 2 billion to plug a pounds 4 billion pension black hole. “Absolutely not,” Mr Crozier said. “There is some confusion out there. It is not for the Government to finance the business but for the regulator Postcomm to ensure that the business can fund its activities and that is quite a difficult task.” A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said that no decision had yet been taken about whether to give any money to plug the pension deficit.

The British government has agreed to inject 2 bln stg into Royal Mail, securing the future of the monopoly operator of the country’s household postal delivery service, the Financial Mail on Sunday reported. The paper, citing an unnamed company source, said finance minister Gordon Brown had approved a deal to subscribe for new shares in Royal Mail. The funds will be used partly to plug a 4.5 bln stg pension fund deficit. Stamp prices will also be raised in order to help pay for an extra 2 bln stg of investment in new equipment.