The British government plans to sell its 40 percent stake in the fast-speed Eurostar train operator that links Britain with the European continent, finance minister George Osborne announced late on Sunday.

A new GBP10 billion privatization program will see Britain's 40% stake in cross-channel rail operator Eurostar sold off to help pay down UK's debts.

Portugal is raising EUR578 million (USD783 million) in the initial public offering of its postal service CTT-Correios de Portugal SA. The Portuguese government is divesting its 70% stake in the mail service.

Prior to meeting with UK's Members of the Parliament regarding claims that Royal Mail's shares in its initial public offering were undervalued, UBS issued a note to investors saying that they need to divest their shares in the postal service.

According to banking sources, the Financial Times said the IPO of UK's Royal Mail was underpriced.

The recent privatization of Royal Mail creates an 'equity culture' in the UK. The strong demand for Royal Mail shares could become the watershed moment where retail investors return to share sales.

The staff of Royal Mail Group Ltd. had voted to go on strike after less than a week the company had launched its IPO, claiming the public debut would put jobs at risk in the company.

Industry observers believed that USPS would be able to achieve success similar to Royal Mail should the former would be listed on the stock exchange.

Royal Mail shares, criticized to be valued too low, had netted hefty profits for its investors. The Abu Dhabi and Kuwaiti sovereign wealth funds have respectively reported a profit of USD30 million each from their investments made in the recently sold UK Royal Mail.

The privatization deal for Royal Mail had received a government estimated number of more than 700,000 applications for the company's shares, said a Reuters report.