Government Report Is to Recommend Sale of Royal Mail, Daily Telegraph Says

A U.K. government-commissioned report will call for swift action to sell Royal Mail Group Ltd., which is saddled with a 10 billion-pound ($15 billion) pension deficit, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

The report, to be released next week, will say private investment is the only way to save the universal postal service and the government must take prompt action before bidders go away, the newspaper said. The report is being drawn up by Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of regulator Ofcom.

The report will reveal a record 7.3 percent fall in postal volumes in the 1009-10 financial year and forecast that such declines might continue for the next five years, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Kuo in London at pkuo2@bloomberg.net

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