Payment for Compulsorily Purchased IDS (Royal Mail) Shares

Moorsman

Just wondering if anyone else here is having the same problem with Equiniti and IDS Shares that I am?

My late mother held shares in IDS (Royal Mail). I am the executor for her estate.

She did not accept the EP UK BidCo offer to acquire the shares. EP UK BidCo exceeded the 90% threshold required for compulsory purchase on the 28th May, so her shares should now be being acquired compulsorily by EP UK Bid Co.

In an announcement on the 28th May 2025, EP UK Bid Co originally said that “ IDS Shareholders who have not accepted the Offer by the relevant deadline …. will not receive their consideration until the completion of the compulsory acquisition process which is expected to take a minimum of six weeks.” The offer closed on the 11th June. Six weeks passed by the beginning of August 2025.

Probate was obtained and payment for the IDS shares was formally requested from Equiniti in mid October.

On 23/10/25 I was told by Equiniti, the registrar, that claims were taking 30 business days, which would have led to payment by 4/12/25. Then in December, I was told that payment might not be made until the end of January.

I find it absurd that it is taking Equiniti so long to process these payments. They say that they have had many thousands of shareholders who did not accept the offer and these are taking time to process.  But why can they not simply send a cheque for the sum concerned to everyone on the register of shareholders, in just the same way they would pay a dividend?

Is anyone else here still awaiting the payment for their IDS shares?

Can anyone please advise what options are open to me if payment is still not forthcoming by the end of January?

What will prevent Equiniti / EP UK Bid Co from withholding payment indefinitely?

All comments/suggestions gratefully received.

Huntleycat

Absolutely the same experience as you. Three phone calls since last summer to Equiniti have received the same vague replies. I’m almost beginning to be afraid that we’ll never get it. In my case it’s around £2500 which is not a small sum. I’m sure they won’t add interest. Apparently payment will be made by cheque rather than direct by BACS. They could easily have asked for account details on the form sent with the returned share certificates. I was told once there were around 9000 ‘dissenters’ but for Equiniti that must be small beer I’d have thought.

UKX69

Huntleycat said:

Absolutely the same experience as you. Three phone calls since last summer to Equiniti have received the same vague replies. I’m almost beginning to be afraid that we’ll never get it. In my case it’s around £2500 which is not a small sum. I’m sure they won’t add interest. Apparently payment will be made by cheque rather than direct by BACS. They could easily have asked for account details on the form sent with the returned share certificates. I was told once there were around 9000 ‘dissenters’ but for Equiniti that must be small beer I’d have thought.

FWIW, I can say that Equinity is by far the worst broker/financial provider I’ve had the misfortune to use. Many years ago when shares were still mostly in certification form, I held a shedload of BP with Equinity as they were the registrar for them at the time. Ok, so far so good. But when it came to pay the cash dividend to my bank account, no show. BP pays a dividend every quarter and I didn’t receive a dividend for nearly a year. I phoned Equinity many, many times, explained over and over but still nothing showed. In the end I did a web search and found the name and contact details of a director of the company and emailed him. I had a reply almost straight away saying he would personally look into my problem. Next day I had an email from someone in charge in head office with an appointment for a phone call. The call came, problem was solved there a then and the dividend owing was quickly paid with compensation. My rule ever since in any dealings with problematic companies is to let them have one try and if that fails, go higher up the chain straight away.

Moorsman

Thanks @UKX69 and @Huntleycat for your replies. In my case it’s around £1600 owed. I’ll give them another call next week if nothing heard, as they suggested payment would be made by the end of Jan. After that I think it’s time to escalate it.

I was also wondering if there would be any mileage in going through the small claims court, although I’ve no prior experience of that process.

UKX69

Moorsman said:

Thanks @UKX69 and @Huntleycat for your replies. In my case it’s around £1600 owed. I’ll give them another call next week if nothing heard, as they suggested payment would be made by the end of Jan. After that I think it’s time to escalate it.

I was also wondering if there would be any mileage in going through the small claims court, although I’ve no prior experience of that process.

Just a footnote to my previous posting - If you go down the route that I took and if I remember correctly, I had to do a search of the American sites of Equinity to find details of UK directors, because at the time nothing was listed on the UK site. Absurd I know, but there we are. Good luck anyway and let us know how you faired. 👍

Booksandcandles

Same here. I rang them in november. They confirmed they had received all the paperwork and it was all correct just waiting for cheque to be issued. Said they were behind with dealing with payments and management were aware.

How do we escalate this further?

Moorsman

Having been promised payment by the end of January, and still not received the monies due, this morning I contacted Equiniti’s Corporate Action Line again. Their adviser confirmed that they had received all the necessary paperwork from me (sent in October), and that there had been no update to the case file since the 4th of December.

The agent offered to raise my case with Equiniti’s senior management team. I told her that if I had not heard back from them by Friday I would raise a formal complaint. She told me that they have no e-mail address for complaints, and that the only way to raise a complaint was to call her again, and she would pass on the complaint to the complaints team, which seems most unsatisfactory. I’ll check their website to see if there is direct route to raise a complaint. Hoping it won’t be necessary.

I appreciate that the IDS compulsory purchase may have resulted in a large workload for Equiniti, but as a large global corporation, surely they should find the resources to process this workload in a timely manner.

Or is EP UK Bid Co now only making the payments for dissented IDS Shares when absolutely compelled to do so?

It would be great to hear back from anyone who has actually been through the dissenting shareholder process and now has had the payment for their shares.

I’ll update again when there’s any more news.

Moorsman

Here’s a further update for anyone who cares to read this thread.

When I contacted Equiniti’s Corporate Action Helpline last Monday (2nd February 2026), I explained that, on their advice, I had first waited 6 weeks from mid October to early December to get payment for my IDS shares, and then, based on what I was told in December, had waited until the end of January, by which time, still no payment had been received from Equiniti. They had previously confirmed in October that they had received all the information that they needed from me.

Having run out of patience, I politely told the adviser that unless payment was made by last Friday (6th February), I would feel I had no option but to make a formal complaint. I also mentioned that I was considering commencing a claim through the small claims court process.

The agent told me that she would escalate my case to the corporate action management team.

The good news is that the cheque for the compulsory purchase of my IDS shares arrived in the post on Friday lunchtime.

I hope that this information helps anyone else who finds themselves in the same position, and turns to this excellent forum for assistance. Good luck!

Booksandcandles

Well seems like you have to complain to get it!!

I got mine last week but my husband and daughter are still waiting.

Moorsman

@booksandcandles Glad you got paid. Hope your husband and daughter get theirs soon. 🙏🏻

Booksandcandles

My husband rang them today. He had to wait nearly 20 mins for them to answer .They have referred it to the team. I gave them a rant about how this was not fair and they should employ more resources to deal with it.

Nearly 4 months now.