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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/royal-mail-may-be-forced-to-sell.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="The Royal Mail may be forced to sell off some of its most profitable businesses in exchange for a government bailout" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/min-royal-mail-may-be-forced-to-sell.jpg" alt="The Royal Mail may be forced to sell off some of its most profitable businesses in exchange for a government bailout"/></a></p>
<p>The Royal Mail may be forced by the European Commission to sell off some of its most profitable businesses in exchange for a government bailout of its pension scheme, it has been reported.</p>
<p>The Commission is understood to be considering whether the Government&#8217;s plan to take on the group&#8217;s pension liabilities constitutes state aid, and if this gives the business an unfair advantage over its competitors, according to the Sunday Times newspaper.</p>
<p>If it does decide the move constitutes state aid, it is thought Brussels may demand the sale of some of the Royal Mail&#8217;s most profitable divisions, including its European parcels operation General Logistics Systems.</p>
<p>The business, which is based in Holland, handles more than 1 million parcels a day and made a £51 million profit in the past six months. Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland were both ordered to make disposals by the Commission after they received a bailout from taxpayers.</p>
<p>But having to sell off some of Royal Mail&#8217;s valuable businesses could hamper Government plans to sell the group.</p>
<p>The Government announced plans last year to sell off 90% of the Royal Mail to private companies, including overseas firms, with the remaining 10% going in shares to postal workers. To make the deal more attractive, it will take over Royal Mail&#8217;s £8.4 billion pension deficit. The Post Office arm of the business will be retained and is likely to be converted into a mutual structure in a similar manner to the John Lewis Partnership or the Co-operative Group.</p>
<p>Officials from the Department for Business have held informal talks with Brussels about their plans for the group, but have not yet notified the Commission formally.</p>
<p>But commentators point out that there are grounds for optimism, as unlike the banking industry, the postal industry is in decline, with delivery volumes falling from 84 million a day to 68 million a day during the past five years. In 2007 the Commission also gave approval for the French government to finance the pensions of La Poste workers.</p>
<p>A Department for Business spokesman said: &#8220;It is far too early to speculate on this matter. We have only had informal talks with the European Commission and clearly they will not be able to take a firm view until the UK has formally notified them of its intentions and they have gone through their procedures.&#8221;</p>
<p>A Royal Mail spokesman told the Sunday Times: &#8220;We believe we have a strong and compelling argument.&#8221;</p>
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