The government is to start the tendering process to procure a syndicate of banks to advise on a possible flotation of Royal Mail within the next few days, business minister Michael Fallon has revealed.
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) specialist commercial arm, the Shareholder Executive, hopes to appoint the lead global advisers at the end of May.
At the same time Royal Mail will begin exploring access to capital with the debt markets, also in the coming weeks. Both of these processes are part of ongoing work to prepare Royal Mail for a sale of shares during the current financial year.
Fallon said the government was attracted to an IPO as the preferred method of sale, but all options remain on the table and no final decisions have been taken.
