Royal Mail Sale To Be Completed Before Strike

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thebee.co.uk/news/national-n ... re-strike/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Government has confirmed a timetable for the Royal Mail privatisation to be completed ahead of any possible strike action by postal workers.

Shares are expected to be priced at between 260p and 330p, ministers said, giving a market valuation in the range of £2.6bn and £3.3bn.

The Government explained that it planned to sell between 40.1% and 52.2% of the company, which is expected to make its market debut on October 11, with 150,000 Royal Mail staff receiving free shares likely to be worth roughly £2,000 each at the valuation's mid-range.

It was confirmed that unconditional dealings in the stock will start on October 15, which is the day before voting closes in a ballot by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) over whether to back a campaign of industrial action on the sale.

Any strike action would start a week later.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "Today is an important day in the life of Royal Mail. People can now apply to buy shares in this iconic British brand.

"This will give Royal Mail access to the private capital it needs to modernise, as envisaged under successive governments, and enshrined in law by Parliament two years ago."

The Government envisages that 70% of the offering will be allocated to institutional investors.

Individuals can apply for shares from later today, with the deadline for the receipt of applications being October 8.

Further pricing details and share allocations will be confirmed when conditional dealings in Royal Mail start.

Retail investors based in the UK can buy shares at a minimum of £750 and can also apply through intermediaries.

Despite the prospect of the windfall for its members, the CWU says it fully expects the ballot to overwhelmingly back strike action unless the company provides guarantees on issues including pay, deliveries and future jobs.

A union communication sent to CWU members today said: "Those who want to sell off the Royal Mail Group are motivated purely by short-term gain and vested interests.

"We cannot give the company a free hand to determine your future and the future of UK postal services."

[Lounge Lizard]

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "Today is an important day in the life of Royal Mail. People can now apply to buy shares in this iconic British brand".
An "iconic British brand" quite rightly equates us to 'the family silver' soon to be owned by some asset stripping, price increasing foreign company like the utilities.

[wabbithunta]

TBT I saw your tweet about this a little while ago so I logged on to get better info from here as there seems to be a lot of conjecture about the sale or RM in the news media at the current time.
Assuming the sale does go ahead, which it now seems set to do so, as the Government have jumped the gun and announced the sale of RM shares ahead of any possible CWU industrial action thereby negating any problems for RM in regards to the sell-off.

My question is this.
As the "sale" has gone ahead and the full allocation appears to have been taken up - according to the news media - does this still mean that if we have industrial action then do we lose the right to any shares from RM? Even if the "sale" has gone ahead to offset any "problems/issues surrounding the CWU and the workforce regarding the current offer from RM along with the chance of the option to take up more shares, prior to the public and "big business" taking up their share options.

As I said it now appears that all shares have now apparently been "allocated" - according to the news media so that would imply that they, RM, have set aside "x" amount of shares for the workforce to buy prior to the actual sale.
Probably not would be the response. So RM's "threat" to not give us shares will stand, if we have industrial action.

If this sounds "garbled" apologies as I'm not feeling well as my migraine means my train of thought gets messed up a bit.

[Lincox]

As far as I know there has been no threat to stop the free shares to the staff. They have threatened to stop the £300 in the original pay offer if your unit goes on strike between now and christmas.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I read it same as Lincoln - the strike when it goes ahead will have no effect on the share issue to employees.

[windermeredave]

The shares will be allocated to staff before any potential IA

[wabbithunta]

OK thanks for that, I thought we'd possibly lose them if we had I/A even though the Government (Cable "et al") have gone ahead and pushed the sale forward.

[halfull]

strike!

[Pete22]

Cameroon,Clegg,Cable and Fallon names that will go down in infamy with posties and their families when we are threw on the scrap heap. If you thought B/H was bad before wait to you see DOMS trying to make the budget targets set for them now.
Welcome to the brave new world of Royal Mail PLC.

[mandelsons_toenail]

Cameroon,Clegg,Cable and Fallon names that will go down in infamy with posties and their families when we are threw on the scrap heap. If you thought B/H was bad before wait to you see DOMS trying to make the budget targets set for them now.
Welcome to the brave new world of Royal Mail PLC.

Agreed

I'm outta here. Thinking of quitting soon, the world awaits

[jack]

Cameroon,Clegg,Cable and Fallon names that will go down in infamy with posties and their families when we are threw on the scrap heap. If you thought B/H was bad before wait to you see DOMS trying to make the budget targets set for them now.
Welcome to the brave new world of Royal Mail PLC.

very true, this is why a massive yes vote is a must