Britain's government is not expected to intervene should the Royal Mail owner agree to a sale to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
While the £3.5 billion takeover offer remains in its preliminary stage, should it be approved, government ministers do not plan to try and block it, reports from the Daily Mail revealed.
However, the government may be able to block the deal under the National Security and Investment Act, which a Whitehall representative said was being monitored “very closely”.
On Wednesday, Royal Mail’s management said it was considering accepting the West Ham owner’s second bid, a month after his first offer was rejected.
International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS) (IDS), the parent company of Royal Mail, revealed it had received a cash offer from the West Ham owner’s EP Group to purchase the company at 370p per share.
It represents a 16% premium to the 320p per share offer previously made by the ‘Czech Sphinx’.
EP Group is already IDS’s largest shareholder, with a stake of 27.5%.
Shares in IDS lifted more than 1.5% on Thursday to around 320p – the same price point as Kretinsky’s first offer.