No TNT For Royal Mail

Lord Peter Mandelson made the announcement in the British Parliament's House of Lords saying," Market conditions have made it impossible to conclude the process to identify a partner for the Royal Mail on terms that we can be confident would secure value for the taxpayer." He added, "There is therefore no prospect in current circumstances of achieving the objectives of the postal services bill. When market conditions change we will return to the issue."

It is reported that Mandelson wanted $3.3 billion for the stake and was prepared to take on the Royal Mail pension liability of over $16.4 billion. Currently there are 450,000 beneficiaries.

TNT Post already competes with the British post office in the UK . Earlier this year it was classed a top 100 Business Superbrand ahead of Royal Mail in a recent YouGov survey of the UK's strongest B2B brands for 2009. TNT was ranked 87, ahead of Royal Mail at 99.

TNT Post now handles 2.25 billion mail items a year in the UK.

In a related move, TNT Post says it has surveyed 23,000 employees on the prospect of 11,000 job cuts over the next three years. Some 74 percent of the 7,683 respondents said they would choose to forfeit working conditions in return for a job guarantee and/or a package of "transitional measures".