Royal Mail set to deliver bumper profits on back of online shopping boom Last month Michael Fallon, the Business minister, said the Government would list the company "within the year." He indicated that the listing was the favoured route but that all other options remained open, including a trade sale. "We recognise the attractions of an Initial Public Offering and we have received positive investor feedback to date," he told the House of Commons. However, all options remain open. If an IPO is not possible, we will pursue the option of a private sale if this can be achieved on acceptable terms. Mr Fallon added that the Government would honour a commitment to offer 10pc of the shares to Royal Mail staff. Royal Mail has 150,000 staff who deliver parcels and letters to 29m addresses. A sell-off will rival the "Tell Sid" privatisations of British Gas and BP in the mid-1980s Thatcher government. In size and money raised, it would eclipse the £1.3bn float of defence firm Qinetiq in 2005 and the £2bn listing of Railtrack in 1995. Margaret Thatcher always opposed the sale of Royal Mail insisting she was "not prepared to have the Queen's head privatised."