Royal Mail Privatisation

[BillyStubbsTears]

Hey ho.

Govt finances are in such a bad state that we have had to put up VAT and make unprecedented cut-backs on capital spending. We're laying off police and soldiers because we can't afford them. By 2015, the education budget will be £9bn per year less than it was in 2010. We've introduced the utterly obscene bedroom tax, which is shitting on some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the country.

And yet.

The Govt can still piss the thick end of a billion quids' worth of our money (that's yours and mine) into the pockets of its mates by setting the price of Royal Mail shares at £3.30, when the market appears to think they are worth £4.50.

Anyone explain the logic of that to me?

[IC1967]

As to your first points its called trying to live within your means. As for the Royal Mail, the government didn't know what the value would be so took an educated guess. They priced it competitively in my view and now the Royal Mail will be able to go from strength to strength with minimal government interference.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I'm not sure what line of work you do Mick (actually, scrap that, I know EXACTLY what your line of work is) but in my field, if you make a prediction and you get it wrong by 40% and lose a customer a great deal of money, you lose your job.

[IC1967]

Its only 40% at the moment due to pent up demand from institutional investors. When things calm down the initial float price won't look to bad. Anyway I'm not complaining. I've made the thick end of £1000 out of the flotation and we all know that businesses operate much more efficiently when government intervention is kept to a minimum.

[BillyStubbsTears]

How many shares did you buy Mick?

[IC1967]

4 lots of £750. I did ask for more but thats what I've ended up with.

[BillyStubbsTears]

FOUR lots of £750? But you were not allowed to make multiple applications. How did you get round that Mick?

[IC1967]

You're not very savvy are you. Me, my wife, my son and my daughter. When I said I made £1000 I was talking about the royal 'I'. Collectively this is what we made due to my excellent financial skills. So I made £250 as did each member of my family. I 'made' it but they got the benefit as well.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Right.

How old are you kids Mick?

[IC1967]

You are starting to get very pedantic but I'll humour you once more. They are in their early twenties.

[BillyStubbsTears]

You sure that they are in their early 20s Mick?

You don't want to consider that perhaps they might be under-18?

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I thought you lefties were all for distributing wealth amongst the population?

I'd have thought that given the working man the opportunity to make something you'd have been more than happy?  Perhaps they should've been priced to help out only rich investors?

[BillyStubbsTears]

BFYP

I've got no interest whatsoever in whether a few people manage to pocket a few quid. Good luck to them.

But the point is that yesterday, the Royal Mail was owned by ALL of us. It was ours. It's now been sold off to the private sector at a rate which appears to be 40% or so too low. That means that WE (all of us) have lost out. It means less money for schools, or hospitals or it means us lot having to pay more tax than we would have done if it had been sold off at the correct market price.

[IC1967]

You sure that they are in their early 20s Mick?

Well thats what they put on their applications.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Right.

When you said "Collectively this is what we made due to my excellent financial skills", what did you mean by "excellent financial skills"? Me being a lefty, I don't understand the concept.

[IC1967]

Right.

When you said "Collectively this is what we made due to my excellent financial skills", what did you mean by "excellent financial skills"? Me being a lefty, I don't understand the concept.

Billy you're being very silly. You are an intelligent man (if somewhat totally misguided). I won't insult your intelligence by pretending you are financially illiterate which you clearly are not. The privatisation was an open goal for anyone to make an easy few quid. I do have sympathy for those that couldn't afford to take advantage. Those who didn't take advantage due to political considerations are a bit silly if you ask me. Just think if they had made a few quid they could have donated it to a good cause or given it to someone in need of a bit of help.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Not quite what I meant Mick. I was wondering how you used your financial skills to help your family.

[IC1967]

Not quite what I meant Mick. I was wondering how you used your financial skills to help your family.

This is a silly statement.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Not at all. I genuinely don't understand what you meant when you said you used your financial skills.

[wilts rover]

You mean you have never heard of Bookiebashers BST - shame on you.

[RobTheRover]

By excellent financial skills I think Mick means he has hidden the cash card from his missus.

[silent majority]

I'm not sure how accurate some of the statements are on this particular thread. The smaller investors don't know how much they've made yet, if anything. Because it was massively oversubscribed most allocations were cut and some didn't get any at all. I applied for shares, and they've taken my money, but there has been no confirmation yet as to whether I was successful.

[Muttley]

I'm not sure how accurate some of the statements are on this particular thread. The smaller investors don't know how much they've made yet, if anything. Because it was massively oversubscribed most allocations were cut and some didn't get any at all. I applied for shares, and they've taken my money, but there has been no confirmation yet as to whether I was successful.

There were apparently a lot of trades going through on the first day of trading for 227 shares which I think was the "standard" allocation for £749.10 - giving the 250 or so profit

[RobTheRover]

[Filo]

They hit £5 a share today, up 50% on the initial floatations price! massively under valued by Gideon and his cronies, I'm sure he'll try to blame Labour for it though, he blames them for all the other b*llocks he drops!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Gideon's list of thinks to blame so far.

1) Labour
2) Snow (Winter 2010/11, he said heavy snow was to blame for the slowdown in the economy)
3) Sun (Spring 2012, he said good weather was to blame for the slowdown in the economy because we'd not spent as much as we should on heating, and we'd been sunbathing instead of shopping.
4) Royal Wedding. (We had a bank holiday when the two simpering upper class twits got spliced and that hit growth)
5) Queen's Jubillee. (Ditto)
6) Europe. (Europe's economy has been flatlining, and the dirty foreign scoundrels haven't bought as much of our stuff as they should, so our economy has struggled.)
7) The rest of the World. (Everyone else is growing and the demand for oil etc is high, so prices have gone up.)

Three years of flatlining and it's everyone else's fault. And then, when we get a couple of quarters of growth, it "proves" that they were right all the time.

We had a word for people like him in Denaby.

[Filo]

Gideon's list of thinks to blame so far.

1) Labour
2) Snow (Winter 2010/11, he said heavy snow was to blame for the slowdown in the economy)
3) Sun (Spring 2012, he said good weather was to blame for the slowdown in the economy because we'd not spent as much as we should on heating, and we'd been sunbathing instead of shopping.
4) Royal Wedding. (We had a bank holiday when the two simpering upper class twits got spliced and that hit growth)
5) Queen's Jubillee. (Ditto)
6) Europe. (Europe's economy has been flatlining, and the dirty foreign scoundrels haven't bought as much of our stuff as they should, so our economy has struggled.)
7) The rest of the World. (Everyone else is growing and the demand for oil etc is high, so prices have gone up.)

Three years of flatlining and it's everyone else's fault. And then, when we get a couple of quarters of growth, it "proves" that they were right all the time.

We had a word for people like him in Denaby.

Does that word start with a 'c' end with a 't' and have a 'u' and a 'n' between them?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Filo.

How DID you guess? And it's not the King who tried to turn back the waves either.

[Bentley Bullet]

Count Gideon?

[BillyStubbsTears]

BB

I think you missed "can't" out of your suggested title. Say it in a cockerney accent and it's doubly appropriate.