According to a statement issued by Britain's Business Secretary Vince Cable last Wednesday, the sell off of Royal Mail had received overwhelming number of applications for shares. The application for shares in Royal Mail had reached more than 700,000, according to a government estimate. This reflected a big demand for the country's largest privatization deal in decades, said a Reuters report.

The report from Reuters said that the British government would be close to the completion of the sale of a majority stake in Royal Mail. This was despite criticism from the opposition of Labour party and the threat of strike action from delivery staff.  Royal Mail, oldest mail carrier in the country is almost 500 years old, said a Reuters report.

On Tuesday, the order books on the privatization deal had already closed. The sale of Royal Mail had been expected to value the company around GBP3.3 billion. The price was atop the targeted price range, said a Reuters report.

At a parliamentary committee meeting, Cable said, "We haven't yet got the final figures but my very rough estimate is that we've had about 700,000 applications and it's about seven times oversubscribed."