Royal Mail strike: We shouldn’t be selling our postal service cheap to customers with poor credentials, says ALEX BRUMMER

The National Security and Investment Act was intended to protect British trade from undue interference by foreign pirates.

Few cases can be more appealing than that of the £3.6 billion bid by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his partners for Royal Mail-owner International Distribution Services.

There are several reasons why Kretinsky’s proposal should be blocked by the Government.

Royal Mail is failing some of its service obligations but reform can fix that.

More importantly, it is an integral part of the UK’s information infrastructure, used by sensitive government departments including HMRC, the NHS, the Metropolitan Police, the Immigration Office and others, to carry documents and decisions.

As well as strengthening the troubled company, the takeover, approved by Royal Mail’s governing board, will weaken the group’s finances despite promises of investment.

No company with £3 billion of equity capital, and £2 billion or more of debt on its balance sheet, can expect to pay its debts and meet its obligations. union agreement without disbanding the enterprise.

The record of foreign borrowings is dismal. The water of the Thames is up to his neck in rubbish and debts.

Asda fell on bad times after a major takeover. The speed with which the private equity funds of the aerospace group Cobham have been damaged has been damaging to British defences.

These actions show how poor the Royal Mail is under privatisation.

Kretinsky’s past close ties to Moscow, before the 2022 war with Ukraine, are cause for pause.

There is a dispute between the EP group of the Czech official and a Russian company over the coal contract.

Kretinsky became deeply involved in Moscow during a decade as an investor in the Eustream pipeline, which pumped gas to Europe through Slovakia.

More than a few Russian firms and diamonds in the UK have seen assets frozen, shares suspended, visas revoked and sanctions imposed after Vladimir Putin’s terror attack on Ukraine.

Yet Kretinsky was described by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds as a ‘proper businessman’. One says Reynolds looks over the Atlantic.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in America is holding up the sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel.

Britain allowed Dubai interests to buy P&O Ports (and later airlines). But the US blocked the sale of P&O ports on its Eastern Seaboard to Pacific interests.

Labour’s economic management has alienated sections of the business community. Selling Royal Mail at a low price to customers with weak credentials and insecurity is a big bad decision.

Sweet work

When British chocolate giant Cadbury was besieged by global food giant Kraft in 2009, then-chairman Roger Carr called for a white-collar deal to save the company from being swallowed up by processed cheese dressing.

Hershey’s is owned by two families in the US, Cadbury has a license agreement in the US, and Italy’s Ferrero was considered a merger partner, but could not make it work.

Kraft took the lead and eventually Cadbury and Oreo, Milka and Toblerone were picked up and split into Mondelez. In 2016, Mondelez looked at Hershey’s with an £18 billion dividend but the number was revealed.

Mondelez doesn’t deliver. Bloomberg reports that Cadbury’s owner has revived his interest, and Hershey’s shares have risen.

A win would require the support of the Hershey Trust which holds 28 percent of the funds but holds 80 percent of the votes. Unlocking it requires art and a lot of money.

Eat but

The market power for marketing has shifted from widely dispersed advertising companies to a handful of Big Tech firms with significant purchasing power.

Against this background US media agencies Omnicom and Interpublic claim £10 billion in total share making an industry of around £20 billion in turnover.

That leaves the earnings of European competitors, Britain’s WPP and France’s Publicis, in the shade.

Size may be the answer. But the worst thing in the media industry is that the intellectual capital – the creative teams – face the calculation.