HG Capital set to bid for DX Mail

Private equity firm HG Capital is set to bid £250m (€376m) for the DX Mail business of recruitment specialist Hays, it was reported today.

The group is ready to step in with an offer after Hays unveiled plans to demerge the business on Thursday, according to the Sunday Times.

Hays is understood to have already received and ruled out several approaches for the division, but may come under pressure to return cash to investors by agreeing to a sale.

Current plans for the demerger will see Hays shareholders given stakes in two separately listed companies.

DX specialises in business-to-business mail services in the UK and Ireland, delivering more than one million items a day and employing 1,200 people.

Hays has restructured itself over the past year to focus on recruitment business Hays Personnel, which has 200 offices in the UK and Ireland serving customers such as Vodafone and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Hays needs the backing of shareholders before it can demerge the DX Mail business but expects the split to be completed by the end of this year.