Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:53 am  

I note in this forthnight's Private Eye, that Osborne has appointed a couple of well-respected organisations to handle the sell-off of Royal Mail. i.e. Goldman Sachs and UBS, both noted for their probity and caution. Nice of Osborne to give them a chance to pick up some cash, they must be a bit short after the hefty record-breaking fines they've incurred... despite, in the case of Goldman Sachs, the millions in tax they were let off in a "sweetheart" deal with HMRC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10656699 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/libo ... andal.html

I note in this forthnight's Private Eye, that Osborne has appointed a couple of well-respected organisations to handle the sell-off of Royal Mail. i.e. Goldman Sachs and UBS, both noted for their probity and caution. Nice of Osborne to give them a chance to pick up some cash, they must be a bit short after the hefty record-breaking fines they've incurred... despite, in the case of Goldman Sachs, the millions in tax they were let off in a "sweetheart" deal with HMRC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10656699 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/libo ... andal.html

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:54 am  

Yet another unnecessary privatisation that won't work.

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:00 am  

Him wrote:

Yet another unnecessary privatisation that won't work.

I've no doubt it'll work just fine for Deutsche Post and various current cabinet ministers

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:06 am  

Typical scum Tories selling off everything.

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:11 am  

IIRC, in order to make RM an attractive proposition to any would be purchaser, the government took responsibility for the pension fund. So we will be in the strange situation where the UK taxpayer is funding the pensions of private individuals.

Some small fooking state that is

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:10 pm  

Including - presumably - the senior management of any privatised entity, for whom pension benefits tend to form a sizeable part of their remuneration package.

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:40 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

>snip<

Would that be the same Goldman Sachs that cleared Greece's accounts for entry to the Euro?

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:03 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

IIRC, in order to make RM an attractive proposition to any would be purchaser, the government took responsibility for the pension fund. So we will be in the strange situation where the UK taxpayer is funding the pensions of private individuals.

Some small fooking state that is

No. That can't be right. Can it?

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:12 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

IIRC, in order to make RM an attractive proposition to any would be purchaser, the government took responsibility for the pension fund. So we will be in the strange situation where the UK taxpayer is funding the pensions of private individuals.

Some small fooking state that is

There's nothing new about that. If they apply the same approach to what happened when the Labour Govt privatised the nuclear industry (BNFL) then the employees' pensions will be frozen in the current scheme and the government will have the liability for that, and the new owner will be required to implement a new pension scheme into which all future pension contributions will be paid. The employees will be given the option of freezing their current pension (and keeping the index-linking) and making future contributions into the new scheme, or transferring their whole pension fund into the new scheme (unlikely). In summary, the government will only be liable for pensions accrued up to the point of sale.

Re: Selling-off Royal Mail : Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:27 pm  

Next big one is RBS, according to reports today Osbourne has insisted that it be flogged by end of 2014 (war chest for an election, maybe) but experts reckon it needs to be delayed to be of a value to get the taxpayers money back and it's likely to be a fire sale just to raise 'bribe' money.