The UK government will sell a majority stake in state postal service Royal Mail via an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange by April 2014, Business Secretary Vince Cable said on Wednesday, paving the way for one of the biggest and most controversial privatisations the country has seen for decades.

The sell-off will create the largest employee share scheme of any British privatisation for almost 30 years, with about 150,000 Royal Mail employees eligible for a free 10% stake in the company when the shares are sold, the government said.