ROYAL MAIL owners agreed to a £3.57 billion takeover offer from Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group today.

The deal would see the foreign private equity group buy International Distribution Services (IDS) while offering a series of “contractual commitments and intentions,” including the continuation of Royal Mail’s universal service obligation to one-price-goes-anywhere first-class post six days a week and the company’s branding and British headquarters.

IDS also said it would protect existing employment rights of all staff, with “no intention to make any material changes to overall headcount or reductions in the number of front-line workers” beyond existing plans.

Communication Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Dave Ward welcomed “some of the commitments that have been made but the reality is postal workers across the UK have lost all faith in the senior management of Royal Mail and the service has been deliberately run down.”

The union is to meet with EP Group next week and call for a “complete reset” in employee and industrial relations and the restoration of postal services.

It will also lobby Labour and other stakeholders for a members and consumers-led model of ownership for Royal Mail and the creation of a golden share.

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said a Labour government would take the “necessary steps” to safeguard Royal Mail’s “undeniable identity and place in public life.”

Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2013, recently proposed to scrap second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays and cut the service to every other weekday as part of turnaround efforts to regulator Ofcom.

The billionaire investor Mr Kretinsky said that the EP Group “has the utmost respect for Royal Mail’s history and tradition.”

Shareholders will vote on the deal in September.