How Pret ate itself

How bad would it be if Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), were to be taken over by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky? Our historic postal service is heavily lossmaking, struggling to maintain its universal delivery obligation and at war with its unions: a foreign owner would surely take an axe to it.

Kretinsky, who owns almost 28 per cent of stockmarket-listed IDS, has gone back on an assurance that he would not try to take the company private and has tabled a £3.1 billion offer – above the group’s current market value but well below what other shareholders think it is worth. He won’t win with this first gambit but he’s likely to be back with a higher one.

Ministers could use national security powers to stop Kretinsky if they deem him unsuitable to own vital infrastructure. Nicknamed the ‘Czech sphinx’ for his reluctance to talk to the media, he built a fortune in fossil fuels but also owns stakes in Sainsbury’s and West Ham United and controls Casino, the French supermarket chain.