Why are the government being blamed for the Royal Mail share price being set too low?

[joanofarchitrave]

The government followed 'expert' advice from Goldman Sachs and UBS that going for a higher price would be risky. And those banks both presumably then made fortunes on the extremely active market that resulted from the lower price. Meaning profits leaving the country to America and Switzerland, and on a smaller scale, to individuals in this country who, to put it charitably, aren't struggling to survive.

And Vince Cable is being put on the spot for it. What if he had gone against all the advice and the share issue had been seen as sluggish? He would still have been put on the spot for it.

Who needs conspiracy theorists when the world is so comprehensively set up for the benefit of some people and the cost of others?

P.J….The reserves of a country are held/managed by the central bank and are usually in Gold, Currencies and International Government Bonds, and ours are managed by the BoE to increase the value. Gold like a household brick does not bear an annual interest rate, but central banks get an income from lending it out to the markets.

FYI he UK, is what, the 5th or 6th largest economy in the world, but in gold reserves we are around 18th, behind Turkey and Venezuela.

The Uk after the sales has Gold Reserves of 310 tons.
Germany 3,387 tons.
France 2,455 tons.
Italy 2,451 tons.
What do they all know about the usefulness of holding an international asset as a hedge against a crisis, prices in U.S. dollars (the main reserve currency in the world), that Mr Brown didn’t.

Here is the informative The Times article link written back in 2007, when the loss was £2 billion, but I understand if sold at the all time high within another 5-years, it was closer to £9 billion.

archive.is/TUsik

The gold sale was an old government cock up, I think we’ve now (un)covered that, may I suggest we get back to the subject of this post – the CURRENT governments cock up, there is bound to be more details to come..

BillyBanter…just to clear up an earlier point, at least ‘the workers’ did benefit directly from the sale cock up.

news.sky.com/story/1154672/royal-mail-free-shares-worth-489m-for-staff

“Around 100 million free shares have been allocated for eligible employees of Royal Mail, giving a total initial market value of £489m.”

“Each eligible full-time employee in Royal Mail is entitled to 725 free shares with an initial market value of £3,545.25 - above the £3,000 maximum amount that can be allocated to an individual member of staff in a tax year under HMRC rules.”

“Royal Mail said due to the strong performance of the shares, this limit has been exceeded.”

“A total 613 shares worth £2,997.57 at the closing mid-price on Tuesday have been awarded to each eligible full-time employee.”

“Royal Mail intends to allocate the 112 surplus shares to individual full-time employees as soon as possible in the next tax year.”

“Less than 0.5% of around 150,000 of eligible full-time and part-time Royal Mail employees based in the UK chose to opt out of receiving free shares.”

And then didn’t do too badly afterwards over a new pay deal – that also ended the threat of strikes due that Royal Mail privatisation, where they were treated so badly.

“Royal Mail staff accept 'ground-breaking' pay deal”
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26069867

“Postal workers have voted overwhelmingly to accept what their trade union called "a ground-breaking" pay deal.”

“Previously the Communication Workers Union (CWU) had been threatening industrial action.”

“The deal covers pensions and job security over the longer term, the kind of agreement more common in Germany.”

“On pay, the workers will get a 9% above-inflation increase, phased across the next three years.”

“The agreement will also bring an end to the union's threat of industrial action over Royal Mail privatisation last year.”

Now all the company will want is German private sector Productivity levels. Oh dear.