thing is who would actually buy royal mail...

[BingBong]

in the lead up to christmas? i cant see a buyer before then or the planned strikes? discuss...

[ebbzie]

All the Tory boys friends in the city. They will make £millions . they cant lose , just think how much the land RM owns is worth? If the business went tits up they will still make money. Just the poor workers will be the major losers here

[UnhappyGremlin]

Somebody will.
The chance of extreme profits for what would be very little outlay is too tempting.
RM has billions in assets.
The pension and wage bill is in and around £6.5bn a year. To cut that in any one of a large number of ways, would immediately increase profits, and that's only short term.
In the longer term, cutting allowances, cutting pay, reducing hours of contracts, replacing managers with team leaders, would allow hundreds of millions extra profit.
Then they can cut the service to three days a week, meaning every other day deliveries like TNT do, or cancel Saturday deliveries (cutting the wage bill by one sixth in one swoop), reinstating the six day week which would again reduce staff levels by one sixth.
The list of possibilities is endless. RM is open to abuse, and they will be lining up to do it.

[DOM]

in the lead up to christmas? i cant see a buyer before then or the planned strikes? discuss...

With all the pension funds set to gain from the £84 billion sell off of vodafone's American company, they'll be looking to reinvest, so at the right price Royal Mail will look appealing.

[baldrick]

Royal Mail also owns a lot of land and buildings in prime locations which would make millions, if not billions, for asset strippers.

[taxi4leighton]

we are worth a lot more than £3Billion.the estate that can be sold in prime sites alone is over £1 billion.i think that pension funds alone will buy all the shares they can

[nataddick]

Moya has already disposed of most of RM's prime property locations.

Most of them were sold with the benefit of planning permission that increased the value significantly - e.g. Rathbone Place, Nine Elms & Coton House in Rugby to name a few.

Not very difficult is it ? - Employ a top firm of surveyors to advise the company on the individual values of each property in the whole portfolio. Decide which ones to retain or relocate and sell the rest with the benefit of commercial, retail or residential planning permission in place. Job done.

I do not believe there is much asset stripping still to be done. The real value added activity will come from improving the overall profit margin and slashing costs. For 'more responsive' read much smaller. 'Greater commercial freedom' read ability to increase prices.

Pensions funds will be attracted by the 'regular' dividend payment of over 40% plus the expectation of a small but steady increase in the share price.