Chuka Umunna – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-04-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what safeguards were (a) sought and (b) put in place to ensure that priority investors would continue to invest over a longer period of time in respect of the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Michael Fallon

More than 500 would-be investors in Royal Mail were approached in the lead up to the sale including potential long term institutional investors.

As is standard practice for any flotation, we did not seek to lock in any investors in as they would have paid less for a stock they could not trade.

We understand that the majority of the shares, other than those owned by government, the Royal Mail workforce and retail investors, are currently held by long term institutional investors.