Dutch PostNL agrees to management buyout of UK arm Whistl

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Whistl, the postal firm whose plans to rival Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) as a delivery firm were scuppered by funding issues, has agreed a management buyout from Dutch parent PostNL (Swiss: PN6.SW - news) .

PostNL said on Thursday that following a strategic review of its activities in the UK it had agreed to the deal, under which it will retain a 17.5 percent stake in Whistl, Britain's second-largest postal operator.

Like rivals, Whistl collects and sorts mail from business customers before passing it to Royal Mail for delivery. However it had aspirations to deliver some of this mail itself and wanted to launch a nationwide service.

Whistl had been trialling the service since April 2012 in some UK cities but earlier this year pulled its rollout plan and ended the operation due to funding issues, putting 1,800 jobs at risk.

Like most other European mail companies, PostNL is grappling with a changing sector in which letter volumes are falling while parcel delivery has become increasingly competitive as rivals look to tap higher e-commerce volumes.

In May the group said it was reviewing its operations in Germany, Britain and Italy after a sharp fall in first-quarter operating income.

PostNL said the Whistl transaction, expected to close later this year, would negatively impact the group's consolidated equity by between 20 million euros and 25 million.

No other financial details were given. (Reporting by Neil Maidment; Editing by David Holmes)