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Royal Mail is about to be sold to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky in a £3.6bn deal that could be announced in the next two weeks.
The deal must comply with new UK rules on foreign ownership of companies, but Kretinsky passed earlier tests when he bought more shares in the 500-year-old company.
Progress toward the sale suggests the government has ruled out its alleged ties to Russia.
He owns a gas transmission company that transports Russian gas to Europe, which has led to speculation that he has ties to Vladimir Putin's government, but previous investigations have found no connection.
Kretinsky, known as the Czech Sphinx because of his low profile, has promised to maintain the universal service of six days of weekly deliveries with the same price throughout Britain.
He also agreed not to touch the company's pension surplus and promised not to change his name or tax residence for five years, according to the BBC.
The agreement also does not include forced dismissals for five years.
The board of the owner of Royal Mail recommended the offer to its shareholders. The deal must now be approved by ministers under the National Security and Investment Law.
Royal Mail was state-owned for centuries until it was privatized in 2013, when then business secretary Vince Cable, under David Cameron's coalition government, sold a stake in the London Stock Exchange.
The public was invited to buy shares and the company's value recovered. But since then, its share price has been sluggish.
The renamed International Distribution Services holding company, which owns Royal Mail, is trading at 357 pence a share, little changed from the 330 pence it sold for more than a decade ago. As a result, the company was kicked out of the FTSE 100 index among top UK companies in 2022.
Royal Mail has struggled against its competitors as people switched from sending letters to sending parcels.
Since the dawn of email and other electronic communications, the sending of letters has decreased dramatically: half the number are currently sent than in 2011.
International Distribution Services said in May that Royal Mail posted a loss of £336m. The company's overall financial performance was boosted by its other holdings, including Amsterdam-based parcel delivery company GLS.
