ConDem spin

Royal Mail shares demand outstrips supply

Spread the love

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/08/royal-mail-shares-demand-outstrips-supply

Huge interest among members of the public will hit institutional investors, but hundreds of staff refuse allocation of free shares

Image of post office van next to postbox

Dozens of banks, hedge funds and other institutional investors will be prevented from buying any Royal Mail shares as demand for stakes in the privatisation hugely outstrips supply.

Institutional investors are thought to have ordered more than 10 times the number of shares available, meaning only those that offered to pay the maximum £3.30-a-share will be able to buy any stock – and even then they will not collect anywhere near the amount they requested.

A £3.30 share price values Royal Mail at £3.3bn and will see the government collect £2bn from the 60% of the business being sold. A further 10% is being given to Royal Mail’s 150,000 employees – each will collect shares worth about £2,200.

The original government price range for the shares – set on the advice of investment banks UBS and Goldman Sachs, which collected millions in advisory fees – had been between £2.60-£3.30. If the government had priced the shares at £4 it would have collected an extra £400m for taxpayers.

The amount of shares available to banks will be decreased to ensure the government meets the majority of orders from the public. The 10% of the shares reserved for employees are being distributed for free but it was revealed that 368 staff had refused to take up their allocation.

…

Continue ReadingRoyal Mail shares demand outstrips supply

Andrew Lansley’s lobbying Bill is still a ‘dog’s breakfast’

Spread the love

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andrew-lansleys-lobbying-bill-is-still-a-dogs-breakfast-8861358.html

Charities caught up in confusing legislation intended to regulate lobbyists and lobbying

Andrew Lansley’s last-minute efforts to revamp the heavily criticised lobbying Bill has meant the Government has spent the last month in “a headless chicken run” on flawed legislation that will have a “chilling effect” on the efforts of charities and campaigning organisations, according to an electoral lawyer and a rights activist.

Mr Lansley, the controversial former health secretary who is now Leader of the Commons, is again under fire after the Government last week published a series of amendments designed to improve the Bill, described in August by the head of the Commons constitutional reform select committee, Graham Allen, as a “dog’s breakfast”.

The Commons will revisit Mr Lansley’s awkwardly-named “Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill” on Tuesday. However, the claimed “improvements” made after Mr Allen’s committee questioned the House leader last month appear to have made the legislation even worse.

<original content snipped>

…

27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

Continue ReadingAndrew Lansley’s lobbying Bill is still a ‘dog’s breakfast’

The Royal Mail sale is grotesquely illogical

Spread the love

Guardian source

Image of post office van next to postbox…

“There’s no way we will sell Royal Mail ‘on the cheap,'” promised the government in its “myth-busters” factsheet. Yet this is precisely what it is doing; the valuation is believed by many experts to be on the embarrassingly low side. Experts from Panmure Gordon say that its lower value estimate of £2.6bn could be undervalued by up to £1.9bn pounds, or over 40%. Labour points out that the valuation does not seem to include up to £1bn of property assets – such as the Mount Pleasant or Nine Elms sites in London. Add to this that Royal Mail has an accumulated backlog of tax credits of about £2.8bn, which means that it is expected not to pay any tax for between five and 10 years. And here is the kicker – not only is this government selling the service significantly under any sensible valuation, it is retaining its biggest liability – pensions. Why wouldn’t there be frenzy for its undervalued, no-strings-attached shares?

“But anyone can buy shares,” point out the sale’s proponents. Indeed, provided that “anyone” has between £750 and £10,000 to spare and access to a broker or enough savvy to buy privately. Even then, one would be paying for a tiny amount of shares in something that we all jointly own already and end up not really owning it. The government itself forecasts that seven out of 10 shares will be bought “by big institutions in the City and overseas”. The apotheosis of the cockamamie logic surrounding the sale, is the idea that some of the City institutions set to make a killing may own our pensions. This, apparently, makes everything alright. The state is selling a valuable, profit-making asset, substantially below market value, in the vague hope that some of the corporate entities who buy it may happen to hold your pension.

“Look,” explained James Max on Sky News, “let’s get it off the balance sheet and reduce national debt,” echoing the sentiments of those in support. This is where the rationale of this fire sale really crumbles. Royal Mail is profitable. During the last financial year it showed an operating profit of over £400m. According to the government’s own literature, “the company is on the road to sustained profitability”. It is in a position to make a positive contribution to state coffers. Selling it does not decrease the budget deficit, it increases it.

…

Continue ReadingThe Royal Mail sale is grotesquely illogical

Royal Mail being sold off ‘cheap’, says Umunna

Spread the love

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2013/10/royal-mail-being-sold-off-cheap-says-umunna/

The government’s plan to privatise the Royal Mail amounts to ‘flogging off a national institution on the cheap’ and could leave taxpayers shortchanged by future asset sales, Labour’s shadow business secretary has warned.

Image of post office van next to postbox

Chuka Umunna said the plan to float the company next week was being conducted in a rush, and called for a full valuation of the firm’s property portfolio should be undertaken to determine the value of any possible land sell offs.

He warned that postal delivery offices in prime development sites could be sold after privatisation, delivering a windfall for private shareholders but no return to the public sector. Steps needed to be taken so that proceeds from any sale could be retuned to taxpayers, he said.

Market analysts have predicted that the sale could value the firm at around £3bn. However, Umunna said two of the company’s London sites – in Nine Elms and Mount Pleasant – alone could be sold for more than £1.5bn.

The share prospectus for the sale of the firm stated these sites had been ‘surplus’, Umunna said and, once privatisation is complete, these and other offices other prime locations could be sold.

He called for ministers to reveal whether an independent valuation of the property portfolio has been undertaken ahead of the sale. They should also set out which of the firm’s sites across Britain have been identified as surplus, and whether any ‘clawback’ mechanisms have been established to allow proceeds to go to the Royal Mail’s pension fund or the Treasury.

It is expected Royal Mail will be listed on the London Stock Exchange on October 11 and will be fully traded the following October 15.

‘David Cameron’s fire sale of Royal Mail is bad for consumers and bad for businesses and there are real fears that taxpayers are going to be considerably short changed,’ Umunna added.
‘Royal Mail has a huge property portfolio in prime development sites in London and across Britain and there is nothing to stop the privatised company making a quick buck by flogging off these assets for development. Ministers need to come clean on which sites are due to be sold and what valuation has taken place.’continues

 

Continue ReadingRoyal Mail being sold off ‘cheap’, says Umunna

Number of NHS A&E units failing to meet targets triples in a year

Spread the love

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/04/nhs-a-and-e-units-targets

Thirty-nine departments failed to see 95% of patients within four hours in England, up from 14 units for same period in 2012

Accident and emergency
Accident and emergency

 

 

The number of A&E units failing to meet the government’s four-hour target has almost trebled in a year.

A total of 39 departments failed to meet the target of seeing 95% of patients within four hours between July and September, according to NHS England data. This compares with 14 units during the same period last year.

The target covers all A&E types, including minor injury units and walk-in centres, and the number discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours of arrival.

The NHS as a whole across England is still hitting the target, with 96% of all patients seen within the time between July and September. But this is only because some units perform way above the target, with some consistently hitting 100%.

In August, David Cameron announced £500m of extra funding over the next two years to support A&E.

The cash is intended to help units through the winter, cutting delays and reducing the number of admissions.

The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, said: “David Cameron’s ill-judged re-organisation has placed the NHS in the danger zone. The government cannot continue to ignore the warnings. Until ministers face up to the fundamental causes – the collapse of social care and frontline job losses – the NHS will continue to struggle.

“This is further proof you can’t trust David Cameron with the NHS. We can’t have another year in the NHS like the last one – he needs to urgently get a grip.”

 

Continue ReadingNumber of NHS A&E units failing to meet targets triples in a year