Three Months after The Royal Mail Sale

Judge the Royal Mail sale in three months, said Vince Cable. Time's up
Today's share price confirms the company was grossly undervalued, cheating the taxpayer out of billions of pounds



"There's no way we will sell Royal Mail 'on the cheap'," promised the government in its Royal Mail: Myth-Busters factsheet, issued before the sale of most of our stake in the public asset, last October. Many commentators at the time thought the sale was irrational and the company grossly undervalued.

When shares finally opened for conditional trading, their price jumped from the government's valuation of 260p-330p each to more than 450p. The business secretary, Vince Cable, dismissed this as of "absolutely no significance … it is froth and speculation". He asked to be judged on what the price looks like in three months' time.

Well, three months have come and gone and the price of the shares is, at the time of writing, sitting pretty at over 600p each, with a high of 610p a few days ago – an 80% climb on their original price. This suggests that the company was undervalued by a giant £2.8bn: six times the projected saving this year by the imposition of the bedroom tax; six times the amount of money the government hopes to save by the imposition of a levy that is causing misery to thousands of vulnerable people and their carers up and down the country. And Royal Mail could have further to go yet. JP Morgan predicts the price will settle at about 700p a share. Earnings-per-share forecasts bear this out – they estimate a 30% gain this year.

So, now that it turns out that the sale of Royal Mail was, in fact, completely botched and has cheated citizens of billions of pounds' worth of value, where is the apology? Where are the resignations? If something like this had happened at local government level, there may have been questions of criminal prosecution. Why do our representatives in Westminster feel that they don't have to apologise when they get it so disastrously wrong, that they don't even have to give an account of themselves? They can simply ignore criticism; wave it away as if it were an unsavoury smell.

Goldman Sachs and UBS, the companies paid a stonking £16.9m by the government for managing the privatisation, were questioned about the price discrepancy by a parliamentary committee in November. They denied any impropriety, claimed the 330p price was correct according to their research and described the whole fiasco as a "well-executed transaction". Less than a week later, Goldman Sachs issued a note to its investors, advising them that the price of the shares would settle at about 610p.

When it emerged that the very companies advising on the sale were offered millions of shares in Royal Mail, shares which today represent a potential profit of over £35m, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said there was no possibility of conflict. This was because shares were offered to the investment arms of the banks and there are "Chinese walls" in place between them and any employees working on the sale. When it transpired that one of the biggest potential private beneficiaries from the flotation was hedge fund management company, Lansdowne Partners, and that George Osborne's best man, Peter Davies, was part of their management team, more denials came: "At no point was George involved in, or even made aware of, the allocations," said a Conservative spokesman. More "Chinese walls". Sir Paul Ruddock, Lansdowne's former chief executive, was awarded a knighthood last year after donating £500,000 to the Conservative party, although he denies the two are linked and stresses that his knighthood was for his services to arts.

Royal Mail has already announced its first post-privatisation price rise on business rates, explicitly to "help secure the sustainability of the Universal Service". Meanwhile, Royal Mail's chief executive, Moya Greene is rumoured to be in line for a £1.5m pay packet. After all, she has magically doubled the company's value in three months, hasn't she? Vince Cable is vowing to do his best to block such a package. Oh, the bitter irony … Vince Cable "playing boss", three months after selling the service, at a bargain basement price. Talking tough on a single payoff, three months after presenting City investors with a bumper £2.8bn bonus. Of our money.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/23/royal-mail-sale-vince-cable


FGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tie everything down before they sell it.

I'm a taxpayer and I own hares I don't feel cheated. I do feel cheated paying for your mincer mate to sit on his arse whist pretending his partner needs him 24/7. The same partner who is fit enough to beat him UP.

Even with your incredibly limited intelligence don't you smell a rat?

Of course you do but you constantly defend the Jeremy Kyle merchants of which scatman is a full paid up member.

Had the Royal Mail launch been at a high price it would have failed and hen yo would have been crowing how incompetent they were.

As an owner of those shares I can tell o had they been much hugher I would not have bought them.

Finally with your Jethro Bodine maths A levels(I never stop laughing about you saying that Pure and Applied no less) if you knew it to be too cheap why didn't you buy?

It just sour grapes as always with you comrade

I wouldn't feel cheated if I owned hares either         


The bile that covers the page whenever you type shows exactly what you are.

Sassy wrote:I wouldn't feel cheated if I owned hares either         


The bile that covers the page whenever you type shows exactly what you are.  

Fartson can't help farting his bilge out.   

Good evening Folks.

I've made just over £11,000 in profits from these shares.And no,I won't be giving any of it to charity.

Taxpaper's money, obtained because this government would sell their own grandmother.

Sassy wrote:I wouldn't feel cheated if I owned hares either    :lol!:lol!:    


The bile that covers the page whenever you type shows exactly what you are.  

Bile is a substance in plentiful supply in your house for use in your cauldron.

Please remember dim lady I am the rich tory c__t not the jeremy kyle class warrior low life spongers like you and scatman.

How much you must enjoy whispering in your grandchildren s ear the Grandma will leave tham in a whole pile of debt.

Bile lady is your specialty

I think you have just shown that the opposite is true and avarice is your only goal.

I wish that were true smelley we only got 7£50 each therfore our gain is rather less. As I guess was yours but it probably gave the witch heartburn thinking you did.

She has a cheek it is she constantly moaning some people are richer than she is.

You are a very silly old man, I envy no one, I have riches in life.

Sassy wrote:I think you have just shown that the opposite is true and avarice is your only goal.

If it were I would gladly say so to annoy you you old witch.
It isnt.
Your motives and that of scatman are clearly driven by the politics of envy.

Lets be honest you have left a raft of people on these forums shocked by your subterfuge and dishonesty latterly Nems. Before her sphinx seren victor et al.

Now tell me again how nice you are. You and scatman are fair game You are beneath contempt.

How dare you pretend you are an inoocent old lady.

YOu are an older version of Karen Matthews. No doubt a heroine of yours.

And the bile goes on. Jeez, you must have such a stomach ache.

Sassy wrote:You are a very silly old man, I envy no one, I have riches in life.

The sofa has his name on it, he probably sleeps there for most of the time.

Well, he certainly seems extremely frustrated.

Less of the old witch I am 57.

I never begrudge someone their money you carp eveyday .

I dont normally watch shit tv but I like Benidorm.
I see Madge as you personified you exude all her qualities.

I dislike her intensely the rest are amusing.

You seem so much older.

Sassy wrote:Well, he certainly seems extremely frustrated.

It's endless these days, judging by his posts.....Not much of a break in his continuous posting of bile.   

Hi scatman thought about doing a days work yet.

A big ask I know for someone who has leeched for years.

If your partner keeps beating you up when he is alledgedly so unwell perhaps it might change your bone idle mind.

I have paid my dues you want to avoid work at all cost.

Witchypoo and scatman

Catman wrote:

Sassy wrote:Well, he certainly seems extremely frustrated.

It's endless these days, judging by his posts.....Not much of a break in his continuous posting of bile.   

I think his wife needs to get him in the sack and give him a good seeing to lol

Sassy wrote:

Catman wrote:

It's endless these days, judging by his posts.....Not much of a break in his continuous posting of bile.   

I think his wife needs to get him in the sack and give him a good seeing to lol

She probably got over that one years ago, and who could blame her!

   

Shouldn, t you be looking for work instead of speculating about my sex life.

Im doing fine actually you seem to be getting a good hiding from your partner instead of geting laid.

As far as sassy is concerned I reckon most men would stick their willies in a meat grinder rather than in a putrid old witch.

Clarkson wrote:Shouldn, t you be looking for work instead of speculating about my sex life.

Im doing fine actually you seem to be getting a good hiding from your partner instead of geting laid.

As far as sassy is concerned I reckon most men would stick their willies in a meat grinder rather than in a putrid old witch.

    

You must be one sorry f__k of a bloke if you can be beaten up by someone who is alledgedly housebound. Alledgedly being the appropriate word.

Get a job scatman when you do youll realise that being taxed to death is no fun to pay for work shy mincers.

Clarkson wrote:
I'm a taxpayer and I own hares I don't feel cheated.

...........................

   

GONE in for a spot of rabbit farming now, have we Drinky ?!?

Management the same for hares as for their smaller bunny cousins, is it ?
I suppose you needed something to take your mind off your countless troubles these days..    ::=|Q::