Daniel Kretinsky the Czech billionaire is about to complete the acquisition of Royal Mail. The old Queen ( Victoria ) would not be amused and Queen Elizabeth’s head would be turning on the stamp. The fact is all our household businesses and Institutions are in foreign ownership. The Post Office that once part of Royal Mail is in dire straits and on their Horizon only great shame with persecution.
There are over 37,000 uk companies in foreign ownership. That in itself is not a problem and when household names are bought this tends to get sensationalised. The French last week bought one third of London Heathrow Airport, the sewage dumping Thames Water is predominantly owned by a Canadian Pension Fund ( they love infrastructure) .
Barclays could have been foreign owned but in an attempt not to be UK Government owned took a high priced loan in the Middle East and yesterday paid a £40m fine for doing so. A tad unjust I say bearing in mind the many millions that would have been lost had the Treasury been called upon.
Public companies are perpetually at risk of foreign ownership, the French and Germans nearly took out BT Plc. The fact is we need the money and it is the money that talks.
Gail’s bakery was put up for sale this week at average £2.8m per shop or £500m for the Company. It will take the sale of a ton of croissants to pay for that. It is owned by private equity which buys massages and improves then sell on . In this case in 2021 they bought it for £200m and have doubled its uk shop representation.
Asda meantime needs an exit but it’s £6billion debt and rising annual interest payments to £441m is delaying that one clearing the check out. Owned by two boys from Blackburn who started life with a garage looks like ending up with a garage in a full circle of boom and bust.
Coming soon could well be a sale of all uk tax revenues around £830 billion. Now we could sell that recurring annual pile for say 50 times , raise say £41 trillion , pay off our £3 trillion debt and run everything ( £1.2 trillion per annum ). Then in 31 years run out of money and opt in for a National assisted dying scheme.
Laugh or scoff you may but that’s effectively what happens when you sell and we are running out of money and time. America loves debt and per see it’s not a bad thing till you have to pay it back. The Royal Mail was a good business once but times changed. When was the last time you wrote a letter and the average Christmas card send is now £670 in stamps. King Charles’s head could turn any minute.
qbitblogger 