The owner of Royal Mail has said it is “minded” to accept a revised takeover bid by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

The latest offer from Mr Kretinsky’s investment firm EP Group values the Royal Mail parent company International Distribution Services (IDS) at £3.5bn.

Mr Kretinsky’s firm already owns most of IDS as a 27.6% shareholder but wishes to buy the remaining shares.

An earlier offer had been rejected last month as being too low but now he has offered to pay £3.60 for each share – 73% more than they cost before the prospect of a buyout was raised. The day before the original offer was made a share in IDS cost £2.14.

An extra shareholder payout of 8 pence a share has been offered by EP Group, if the deal closes.

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