UK set to sell Royal Mail stake

UK chancellor George Osborne last night announced that his Government had begun the sale of its remaining stake in Royal Mail and that it would give up to a further 1% tranche in the company to employees.

It means staff including postal workers across Britain will share in a chunk of the company worth around £50m (€68.5m), adding to the 10% awarded to employees when the coalition began the flotation of the then state-owned firm in 2013.

However, it comes after a year in which Royal Mail cut the number of employees by 5,500. It has around 143,000 staff in its main UK business.