FT says
" Ivan Levingston and Oliver Telling in London
35 MINUTES AGO
Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský has agreed to buy the owner of Royal Mail in a deal valuing the former UK postal monopoly at £5.2bn, as he pledged to revive the group’s fortunes away from the glare of public markets.
Křetínský’s EP Group has agreed to pay 370 pence a share for International Distribution Services, the London-listed parent company of Royal Mail.
Including IDS’s debt, the deal values the group at £5.2bn.
EP Group and IDS have spent the past few weeks hammering out the details of a deal for one of the UK’s best-known companies, which since privatisation has been beset by strikes and the burden of having to deliver letters at a set price across the country."