Royal Mail: Britain clinches the terms of the deal to sell 500-year-old postal service to a Czech billionaire

London CNN — Royal Mail, which dates back to the reign of Henry VIII in the 1500s, is set to be sold to a Czech billionaire in a deal that will keep the institution based in Britain. Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group has made “legally binding commitments” to the UK government as part of the process to buy the postal service from its British parent company International Distribution Services, according to a government statement published Monday. EP Group must also uphold the postal service’s “universal service obligation,” which requires it to deliver priority letters six days a week everywhere in the UK for the same flat fee. The commitments given to the government by EP Group “secure Royal Mail’s identity as an iconic British institution whilst also allowing it to operate as a fully private company without day-to-day government interference,” the Department for Business and Trade said in its statement. “Royal Mail’s poor service is now eroding public trust in one of the UK’s oldest institutions.” Who is Křetínský?