Breaking: Royal Mail shares crash on profit warning

Shares in Royal Mail tumbled more than 15 per cent today after the company posted a shock profit warning.

The company told media that operating profit before transformation costs would be between £500m and £550m— compared with £694m in 2017.

Chief executive Rico Black added: “Trading conditions in the UK are challenging. Our letter volumes, especially marketing mail, are impacted by ongoing structural decline, business uncertainty and GDPR.

“While we now expect addressed letter volume declines outside our forecast range this year, we are maintaining our medium-term guidance.”