Royal Mail has failed to publish its financial results on time as it gears up for a £3.5bn takeover by a Czech billionaire.
Parent company International Distributions Services (IDS) was expected to issue figures for its latest financial year to the stock market at 7am on Thursday.
However, by 1pm the results had still not been published. Shares were down just over 1pc.
It is understood that the delay does not relate to any material financial issues. A spokesman declined to comment.
The timing of the delay is unfortunate given Royal Mail is on the brink of a controversial deal that would hand control of the 500-year-old postal service to a foreign investor for the first time.
The company has said it is minded to accept the £3.5bn offer from Daniel Kretinsky, known as the “Czech sphinx”, subject to undertakings on public interest matters.
Mr Kretinsky’s EP Group, which is already the largest shareholder in IDS, has until 5pm on May 29 to either make a firm bid or walk away.
Royal Mail’s finances have been a key point of contention in the takeover discussions as the company grapples with a slump in letter volumes.
It lost £319m in the first half of the year after losing £1bn the previous year amid crippling strike action.
Bosses have put forward proposals to shake up the postal service’s so-called universal service obligation (USO), which requires it to deliver letters six days a week, warning that outdated regulations have left it in a financially unsustainable position.
Under plans submitted to Ofcom, the company would deliver second class mail just three times a week, though six-day deliveries would be maintained for first-class post.
Royal Mail has also pushed through a number of reforms to improve efficiency under chief executive Martin Seidenberg. IDS has said it is aiming to break even for the financial year.
Delays to financial results are often caused by audit issues. Fashion giant Asos last year pushed back its full-year numbers by a week to give auditors at PwC more time to carry out their review.
S4 Capital, the digital advertising firm run by Sir Martin Sorrell, was forced to delay its results twice in 2022 due to audit issues. The blunder knocked more than a third off S4’s market value.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
