Britain set to privatize national mail system

America take note:

Britain is privatizing its Royal Mail postal service through a public stock offering within the next nine months.

The step is expected as the British government has been giving the Royal Mail a big overhaul in preparation for going public, including paying its whopping $6.9-billion pension fund deficit and bolstering its profit.

So far, so good. Revenue from parcel deliveries was up 13% in the last fiscal year, thanks to the growing popularity of online shopping. Overall profit climbed to $600.5 million, from $226.5 million in the previous year. [...]

Contrast that to the U.S. Postal Service, which is pondering cutting back to only five days of service in order to cut costs. Despite efforts to streamline, the USPS reported a loss of $15.9 billion in its 2012 fiscal year, more than triple its loss the previous year.