As a highlight of the Tories swansong, one of the UK national treasures the Royal Mail has been allowed to fall into private hands for the first time in its 508-year history. Even more ominous is that the deal by Czech Daniel Kretinsky has been financed on loans so the future of Royal Mail is set to be hamstrung by surging interest payments. The worry is that the Royal Mail modernisation and investment plans will be jeopardised by its ballooning debt burden, and that its service obligations could be affected as well.
Who thought this was a good idea??
Daniel Kretinsky, 9 July 1975, born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, known as the ‘Czech sphinx’ with an estimated $7.2bn (£5.8bn) fortune, is notoriously private. He trained as a lawyer before turning to finance, and grew his business, EP Group, by snapping up unfashionable fossil fuel assets from companies looking to retreat from oil and gas, which paid off handsomely after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More recently he has branched out into everything from newspapers, football clubs and groceries – Sparta Prague football club, a stake in West Ham United as well as investment in Sainsbury’s, French supermarket chain Casino and Dutch delivery service PostNL and until last year a stake in Le Monde.
He has a New Moon and Saturn in Cancer square a Jupiter in pro-active Aries opposition Uranus – a risk-taker from Jupiter Uranus, with executive ability from a focal point Saturn and an overdose of initiative from so much Cardinal – with a nose for public trends. He will dislike sharing the driving seat – and with his Mars in determined Taurus on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune he will be super-aggressive in his approach.
He’s heading into muddles and mayhem with his Solar Arc Saturn square his Neptune late this year/into 2025; and hitting major, infuriating, blocked setbacks when tr Pluto squares his Mars in 2026/27. Also in 2026/27 the tr Neptune Saturn in Aries will oppose his Pluto which will produce obstacles from a different angle. All of which will throw him completely off track as his yod is given an almighty shove sideways.
There are various charts for the Royal Mail, the earliest being 31 July 1635 JC which makes it a Sun Jupiter in Leo with Pluto conjunct Algol in Taurus inconjunct Saturn in Sagittarius. Tr Uranus is conjunct the Pluto for an almighty upheaval at the moment with an uncertain tr Neptune square the Saturn.
The relationship chart with Kretinsky looks jangled this year with tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune and exceedingly stressed over the next four years with tr Pluto opposition the composite Sun, Pluto, Mercury, Venus
The reorganized Royal Mail, 25 July 1969 and 26 March 2001 both have planets connecting to Algol with Neptune in Scorpio in the first and Saturn in Taurus in the second. They also both look strained vis a vis Kretinsky for some years ahead.
Going the way of water. Sigh.
Let’s wait and see Starmer does. He certainly wouldn’t privatise the NHS.
What will happen to the very just claims by the wronged sub postmasters? Is this another ploy to delay justice, not only they have not had their money returned even less the compensation owed on top of that. How can a foreign owner feel responsible for something that happened whilst the PO was owned by the government. So many questions.
The wronged sub postmasters: Lest we forget
Having a leader with no fire, a weak avoidant mars and libra dominant which can be creative with the truth is a terrible idea, but we will have Starmer anyway. So trying to be positive, I do think he can have some impact with Royal Mail; ‘The Labour party manifesto released today highlights plan to ‘robustly scrutinise’ Royal Mail takeover’ this will appeal to his barrister brain. His sun pluto is on top of the Royal Mail mercury, his saturn square Daniel Kretinsky’s mars.
Thanks Marjorie. Infinitely depressing! I see the North Node for the chart you’ve posted is conjunct UK Pluto -part of the UK yod. Tr Uranus in Gemini will be coming along in 2026 to square those, from communicative, postal Gemini. Plus a Nodal return for Royal Mail. Agreements and contracts may wobble then. Interesting, too, that this news coincides with all the stress about the missing postal votes for this election.
So depressing.
So both NHS and RM to go the privatised way for the long haul ? These two were the sort of saving graces of the UK for hat with the messes of the tory n labour govts of recent.