LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's financial regulator said on Monday there was no reason to launch an inquiry into the government's privatisation of postal operator Royal Mail, a sell-off that has drawn criticism that it short-changed the taxpayer.
Last October, Britain sold 60 percent of Royal Mail at 330 pence per share, ending 500 years of state control and raising 2 billion pounds ($3.36 billion) for the public purse.
However, the firm's share price has since risen by as much as 87 percent, offering quick profits for big banks and City investors and drawing heavy criticism from trade unions and the opposition Labour Party who say the government botched the deal.
That view was reinforced this month by a National Audit Office (NAO) report which said taxpayers had been short-changed by at least 750 million pounds.
Speaking to Britain's public accounts committee on Monday, Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said: "An IPO that goes, on the back of a prospectus and a marketing campaign, to a premium, does not of itself generate a suspicion of regulatory failure." "Our job is to look at whether there has been regulatory failure and there's nothing that I've seen so far that suggests that there was a regulatory failure," he said.
As well as the FCA, British government ministers and bankers responsible for the sale of Royal Mail face another round of questioning by lawmakers this week over whether the postal firm was sold off too cheaply.
(Reporting by Neil Maidment and William James; Editing by Angus MacSwan)