Bids for Royal Mail stake due in April-Mandelson

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssIndus ... 2920090405" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bids for the sale of a 30 percent stake in British state-owned postal company Royal Mail are due this month, British Business Minister Peter Mandelson said on Sunday, signalling the government is pushing ahead with the controversial sale.

"It's due in the course of April, but I can't give you a day and time, but during April," Mandelson told reporters during a visit to Bahrain's capital when asked when bids would be due.

German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported on Saturday in an unsourced report that Germany's Deutsche Post , Dutch logistics company TNT and private equity firm CVC are bidding for the stake.

The British parliament's business committee last week said the government had failed to make a case for the sale as there is no clarity around how the proceeds would be used.

More than 130 Labour parliamentarians are expected to vote against the plan.

Mandelson said there had been no formal bids as yet.

"We won't reach the tentative deadline for the submission of bids until during the course of this month, so it's too early to say," he said.

Those parties that have expressed interest are now evaluating the information they were given, he said without naming any companies.

"I would encourage interest from all those that you've mentioned," he said when asked whether the three companies mentioned in the article in Welt am Sonntag in particular had submitted bids.

Mandelson paved the way for the sale of up to 30 percent of Royal Mail in February in return for the government guaranteeing a universal service and taking over the company's 8 billion pound ($11.4 billion) pension deficit.

The British government wants to partly privatise its postal operator in order for it to remain commercially viable.

The Sunday Telegraph reported last month that Belgian postal group De Post-La Post was also interested, along with companies in Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

[POSTMAN]

:mfo

[pinstripe]

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Seconded.

Motion carried.

form an orderly queue please.

[k979aaa]

The sheer arrogance of the man? :mfo HE ACTS AS IT WAS HIS SECOND CAR HOME FOR SALE AN UNELECTED POLITICIAN OF THE LOWEST KIND!. :mfo

[BELIAL]

It's May now ,care to let the interested parties know what the bids are slimeson?