The last chunk of Royal Mail shares retained by the Government have been sold. The Government retained a 14% share of Royal Mail after it was originally privatised in 2013.
The Government has relinquished that share selling 13% for 455p a share raising 591.1m. The other 1% went to Royal Mail staff. In total, Royal Mail staff hold 12% of shares in the privatised Royal Mail.
In all the sale of Royal Mail has made £3.3bn for the exchequer but hasn’t been without controversy. The government started the sell off in December 1013 and came under fire when the shares nearly doubled in price after an official offering of 330p. An a report commissioned by former Business Secretary Vince Cable concluded that the government could have made more from the initial sell-off.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid says: “We have delivered on our promise to sell the government’s entire remaining stake, which means that for the very first time, the company is now wholly owned by its employees and private investors.”
