Britain is preparing to privatize its postal service, the origins of which date to 1516, in a series of efforts to lower the budget deficit.
The government on Wednesday said it had appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS to manage an initial public offering for the Royal Mail later this year, The New York Times reports. Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch also will work on the sale, The New York Times reports.
Some analysts say the planned offering could value the service at about 3 billion pounds ($4.5 billion), The New York Times reports.
The sale would be the biggest privatization in the country since the railroads in the 1990s, The New York Times reports. Michael Fallon, the minister for business, said the sale was a “practical, logical and commercial decision.”
“Unless Royal Mail has the capability in the future to access equity markets, every £1 that it borrows is another £1 on the national debt,” he said, according to The New York Times. “That means growing the national debt. No responsible party could propose that in the current environment.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.