Committee publication · Correspondence · 27 March 2026
Letter to EP Group relating to the acquisition of Royal Mail, 27 March 2026
From: Business and Trade Committee
Inquiry: Royal Mail
Summary
Chair Liam Byrne writes to EP Group President Daniel Křetínský following his 24 March committee appearance, seeking clarification on the financing structure of EP Group's acquisition of Royal Mail—the first private takeover of the 500-year-old postal service. The letter challenges claims about debt and asks for detail on EP Group's leverage, cash flows between subsidiaries, and cross-liability risks, plus questions on EP's Russian gas pipeline operations.
Key findings
- EP Group's acquisition of Royal Mail represents the first private takeover in the company's 500-year history, making it subject to heightened parliamentary scrutiny.
- Chair Byrne disputes EP Group's assertion that Royal Mail carries no financial debt and raises questions about whether the parent company IDS was acquired with leveraged debt (£3 billion in loans on top of £2 billion existing debt, per press reports).
- Committee seeks clarification on whether EP Group has borrowed money from IDS subsidiary to service debt since the acquisition, and whether such loans have been used for Royal Mail or other operations.
- Committee requests confirmation of liability transfer mechanisms: whether Royal Mail would become liable if IDS defaulted on its liabilities.
- Committee also inquires into EP Group's ownership of the Eustream pipeline in Slovakia, requesting seven years of LNG transport volumes and EBITDA from Russian gas operations.
Tone
AdversarialTopics
Key actors
Daniel Křetínský, EP Group, Royal Mail, Liam Byrne MP, Business and Trade Committee, Alistair Cochrane, IDS, GLS
Notable line
“The EP Group takeover represents the first time in Royal Mail's 500 -year history that it has been controlled by a single private entity.”
Key Quotes
“The EP Group takeover represents the first time in Royal Mail's 500 -year history that it has been controlled by a single private entity. The circumstances of that acquisition, and the wider business activities of the entity that now controls Britain's postal service, are therefore of signal importance for parliamentary scrutiny.”
“… there is no financial debt at Royal Mail, and Royal Mail is not providing any upstream guarantees for our acquisition”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗