Royal Mail share price sent higher by end to rival Whistl’s LDC deal

Royal Mail shares shot up 5.3 per cent yesterday on news Lloyds private equity arm LDC had pulled out of investment talks with the owner of rival postal service Whistl.

 

LDC said its decision to end discussions with Dutch postal operator PostNL was due to “ongoing changes in postal market dynamics and the complexity of the regulatory landscape”. 

 

The investment had been intended to fund the expansion of Buckinghamshire-based Whistl’s current end-to-end (E2E) operations.

 

LDC is part of Lloyds, which is 20 per cent state-owned, while Royal Mail is 30 per cent state-owned.

 

LDC said that after 16 months of on-going discussions with PostNL “UK postal market dynamics have changed and this has affected the viability of the original business case of the joint venture”.