The government is to sell its remaining stake in Royal Mail, completing the company’s journey from public-to-private road transport heavyweight.

In a statement released today, the chancellor said the sale of the government’s £1.5bn stake in the UK’s largest commercial vehicle operator would start this year, completing the privatisation begun with an Initial Public Offering of shares in October 2013.

The government has appointed Rothschild to advise the Department for Business on the sale.

“Any transaction will be designed to deliver best value for money to the taxpayer, with further detail on the form of the sale to be announced in due course,” the government statement said.

Royal Mail recently warned of an overcapacity in the parcels market, where Amazon is building out its own delivery network.

The group tops the MT Top 100 list by some margin, with DHL now number two and Kuehne + Nagel third.

Royal Mail has also revealed that Peter Long, who is currently the joint CEO of TUI the owner of travel agent Thomson, will be its new non-executive chairman replacing Donald Brydon at the start of September.

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