Should I sell Royal Mail shares now?

jammy-jan

As an employee, my husband was given Royal Mail shares. Now the takeover has been agreed, colleagues have been panic selling their shares. Should my hubby sell now or hold off for a wee while?

wmb194

jammy-jan said:

As an employee, my husband was given Royal Mail shares. Now the takeover has been agreed, colleagues have been panic selling their shares. Should my hubby sell now or hold off for a wee while?

The offer was 360p plus a 8p special dividend so it's really whether you want most of the money now, as I type the bid price on the LSE is 361.8p. In theory it could still fall through, IIRC some of the final regulatory approvals haven't been received but clearly the market is confident.

Baldytyke88

jammy-jan said:

As an employee, my husband was given Royal Mail shares. Now the takeover has been agreed, colleagues have been panic selling their shares. Should my hubby sell now or hold off for a wee while?

I sold my RM shares yesterday, but you will get a little more if you wait, for how long I have no idea. I was surprised the takeover was approved.

I wanted to buy something else, so I didn't want to wait.

DUBVENDOR

The sale will likely go through in March /April so if you hold on don't expect any payment before then .

jimjames

Depending on the amounts you might also want to consider whether selling now or waiting will help the CGT situation when the annual limit is now £3k.

london21

I have a small holding of 359 from the initial IPO.

Not imporessed with the performace over the years. Due to reinvesting dividends from £750 worth ,

Also unsure when to sell off.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/winners-and-losers-from-the-36bn-royal-mail-takeover-as-investors-prepare-to-give-deal-their-stamp-of-approval/ar-AA1vYBLU

Matt17

If you do nothing and the takeover goes through will your shares be sold to Kretinsys EP Group and you receive 370p per share automatically? 

wmb194

Matt17 said:

If you do nothing and the takeover goes through will your shares be sold to Kretinsys EP Group and you receive 370p per share automatically? 

Have you read the offer document? See the other, long thread on this but the answer is no, not necessarily but possibly. It depends on how large a proportion of shareholders agree to the sale. Worst case you’ll be a shareholder in an unlisted company.

ipatkins

i am just as confused as many in what to do with my ids shares if i sell do i pay tax if i keep will i lose money or be forced to sell ,or if i sell and put in isa or pension would that be tax free? so m any question and i cant find much help anywhere. Hopefully someone can help or point me in right direction.

wmb194

ipatkins said:

i am just as confused as many in what to do with my ids shares if i sell do i pay tax if i keep will i lose money or be forced to sell ,or if i sell and put in isa or pension would that be tax free? so m any question and i cant find much help anywhere. Hopefully someone can help or point me in right direction.

Outside an Isa or a pension, if you make a capital gain it'll go towards your annual 0% CGT allowance (£3,000) and you may have to pay tax on the amount above £3,000 if you don't have any capital losses to offset against it and/or you've made other capital gains in the tax year.

Selling outside an Isa and then putting the money in an Isa or pension doesn't make any difference, you'll have crystallised a capital gain on an asset held outside a tax wrapper.

Read the offer document, you may or may not be forced to sell if you opt to do nothing. If not enough shareholders, IIRC <90% but >75%, agree to the sale you'll end up owning shares in an unlisted company and in the future you might have a hard time selling them. >90% and all outstanding shares will be compulsorily purchased at the offer price (plus I think the special dividend).

davidjswift

I am being told if I don't sell by end of April 2025 my shares will be worthless as they will no longer be on the London stock exchange is that correct?