Royal Mail lines up next sell off (Telegraph)

[Bloke7]

Royal Mail lines up next sell-off
By Jonathan Russell, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:18am BST 29/07/2007

Royal Mail is to sell off a second multi-million pound property port-folio of post offices and sorting depots just months after concluding its first £70m deal.

The state-owned postal service has appointed property agents Atisreal to undertake the sell off, which property professionals predict will contain a significant number of retail post offices, as well as industrial and office buildings.

Although many of the transactions are likely to be sale-and-leasebacks, the move to cut liabilities and generate cash from its property portfolio is likely to anger campaigners trying save the post office network in the face of planned closures.

A property professional said: "Following the success of the last transaction Royal Mail seems to be keen to squeeze a lot more value out of its property portfolio."

The sale in March of 300 properties was a mixture of freeholds and leaseholds, some occupied some vacant, and was bought by Land Securities Trillium, the outsourcing arm of the largest property company in the UK.

Although the make up and size of the portfolio now being put together has not been defined the sale price could top £20m.

Royal Mail said: "We are continually reviewing our property estate as we move to increase efficiency, drive down costs and maintain a high level of service to customers in a competitive market."

With a countrywide property portfolio estimated to exceed £2bn in value, Royal Mail is in a position to realise a lot of value from its assets, as it implements a rationalisation programme aimed at cutting losses and helping it compete against the private sector.

from (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... ost129.xml)

[axeman]

so there you have it the closing of post offices is not about service to the public it's location , location as many of these house type programs say better the location the better the profit

[billypants]

So when they get the estimated £2bn from selling off the property will they ;

a) use the money to prop up our pensions

b) divide it amongst the top management as yet another productivity bonus


ooh that's a hard one

[ROCKY]

you forgot
c there is no money

[F0zziebear]

On average all employees get about 80% of their bonus. I don't know whether the negotiation with the CWU ensures this, but would be surprised if this wasn't the case.

Lower/middle mgmt get on average a bonus worth about 5-10% of their salary
This rises to about 10-15% for senior mgmt
Top mgmt have an individually negotiated bonus scheme. Some defer their bonus on the risk/probability of continued success over a period of time, which is what some have done, and therefore have done well through the performance over recent years.

Bonus schemes are made up of a mixture of quality of service targets, and financial performance. In the public sector/private but publicially owned sector it is very hard to make vary large bonuses as the non-execs and the Holdings Board agree these things (maybe called the round table for top boys as senior bonuses have risen faster than those at the bottom!)

The quality of service is reliant on everyone producing in operations (cynics may argue that changing the goalposts under Single Daily Delivery etc... mean't we reached our targets!)

In my opinion it is a mixture of genuine improvement and fudging the issue a bit since AL & Adam came in.

The property sell-out and lease back makes sense. Royal Mail had huge amounts of property as fixed assets, which if liquidated help pay for redundancies and allow for cash to invest in new equipment etc... RM has a massive property portfolio similar to the railways, that are being sweated.

It's similar to the government re-mortgaging the country to pay for dividends today. If that money is used unwisely then you weaken the company, but if it means you can pay for voluntary redundancies, surely that's better than compulsorary ones?

Many discussion points, and opinions, but business is never quite that black & white

[bigsharkboy]

bonuses = moving goal posts

ring any bells

:lfo :cfo :lfo :cfo

stuff yer bonus stick it in our weekly pay

[billypants]

The property sell-out and lease back makes sense. Royal Mail had huge amounts of property as fixed assets, which if liquidated help pay for redundancies and allow for cash to invest in new equipment etc... RM has a massive property portfolio similar to the railways, that are being sweated.

That seems like a great plan if you're looking at the short term, ( so fine for our top boys with their contracts soon to expire ) giving us a real boost of funds for vr and investment in new equiptment . . . . but in the long term ( anyone wishing to stick with this job for a few years ) we'll be paying out ground rents on all properties that we now own so actually costing us more on a yearly basis and keeping profits, and therefore profit related bonuses, down.

So Big Al and Ad get the bottom line to look good and retire from RM with a nice big golden handshake and those of us that remain get a raw deal for years to come. . . . sounds about right

[F0zziebear]

Don't worry the government have done the same. Mortgaged our economy so that today we are propping ourselves up by creating public sector jobs. Where does the money come from. The money runs out eventually and then like now the public sector doesn't get inflation or above pay rises. Gordon has consistently failed to meet his own financial targets, or the 5 golden rules and all that.

We are all being stitched up and tidal wave of recession will hit us soon. Sorry to be so negative, but you only have to look at history to see where it's all going.

Tony will be long gone when it all hits
Al & Adam will be gone
Tom Melvin will gone into retirement with a nice pension

I'm in the private sector, and looking for higher ground to stay away from the floods!

Noah

[BB brother]

Don't worry the government have done the same. Mortgaged our economy so that today we are propping ourselves up by creating public sector jobs. Where does the money come from. The money runs out eventually and then like now the public sector doesn't get inflation or above pay rises. Gordon has consistently failed to meet his own financial targets, or the 5 golden rules and all that.

We are all being stitched up and tidal wave of recession will hit us soon. Sorry to be so negative, but you only have to look at history to see where it's all going.

Tony will be long gone when it all hits
Al & Adam will be gone
Tom Melvin will gone into retirement with a nice pension

I'm in the private sector, and looking for higher ground to stay away from the floods!

Noah

Do you reckon hes tryin to follow the American economy model Fozz ?



Win lose or draw,not goin down without a fight .

[baldrick]

Brown is a big fan of the American model. And all the PFI schemes over the last few years originate from him. Same idea.
Sell off the publically owned assets to the Private Sector, theen lease them back. Problem will be when the leases run out, and the private companies decide to cash in and sell them on, or demolish/develop them. Of course Brown will be long gone by then, so what does he care.

[F0zziebear]

Thats the problem with politics. Short term 4 yr goals.

Wait until the PFI ends (25yrs) new scvhools all falling apart. Can't ewait to have to pay for that disaster!

[ROCKY]

leave the mess for the next man as long as i look good,politics in this country rule 1