Investors' Room :: Royal Mail Float - What do you think? - MoneyAM - Free Share Prices, Stock Quotes, Charts, News, Level2

Socrates - 03 May 2004 08:31

I am interested to hear any opinions about the proposed Royal Mail floatation. Will it remain a croc and sink or will it open at a premium and fly?

Chart.aspx?Provider=EODIntra&Code=RMG&Si

Chart.aspx?Provider=EODIntra&Code=RMG&Si

Socrates - 03 May 2004 08:33 - 2 of 320

Before anyone mentions it, I do know how to spell "what", its just that I'm not properly awake yet!

mitzy - 03 May 2004 08:44 - 3 of 320

Send your application in now they should receive it within 3 months..lol.just recieved a post card from SAfrica posted 7 th Jan....took threee months to get here..I supppose the fault lies with the sender who gave it to the tour guide to post and I guess he just sat on it for a while..!

daves dazzlers - 04 May 2004 23:29 - 4 of 320

we lost a cheque in the post that was ment for the broker,first time thats ever happened ,plus are post now comes when thay feel like ,,arround 2.00 pm is about the norm ,a float for me any day,,archie norman as ceo that will do.

Socrates - 04 May 2004 23:40 - 5 of 320

Question is, would things improve after a float? Usually the first thing that happens is massive redundancies in order to reduce costs. Do postal services make money in other countroes? I don't know.

stockbunny - 05 May 2004 14:41 - 6 of 320

Hard to say if it would bring an improvement...some private companies
in the public sector have done a great job and others have proved that
private profit driven companies based in public sector work
do not always mean a great service.

However, companies like Business Post does deliver a great deal and
service (although I'm sure someone somewhere probably disagrees!) so the
asnwer could be for Royal Mail to be a private concern BUT not with a
'written in stone' monopoly, in other words others should be able to
compete or bid, be that on a regional basis or literally like the
lottery situation where the company only has the rights to run it for
x number of years, after which time they can lose out to someone else.

Who should decide? The actual postal service users, so Joe public and
companies, there could be a voting system so if you felt the service
given during the period was rubbish, you could cast a vote for a different
company.

OR let's have an open market, with 2 or 3 different postal companies
each with their own postboxes,logistical systems and delivery staff,
set the postage cost at a definite level and as consumers we could decide
if we post our letters in box A or B - we could choose who we use.

Of course this means two lots of postmen a day potentially delivering but
I'm sure the average household dog wont mind the challenge!!

Zoltar - 05 May 2004 16:16 - 7 of 320

Lands End to John O'Groats for 22p. What private firm will want that? All they want is London to London or other big cities.
The PO delivers hundreds of millions of letters daily, so you have to expect a few million a year to go missing......unfortunately, with 200,000 employees, some are going to be dishonest.....especially since postal workers are not well paid.
I think the Royal Mail is OK, and privatisation will just mean people paying more for choice but not improvement. If I'm realistic, 99% of mail can take a week for all I care...it's mainly rubbish anyway, so keep it cheap and cheerful. There's special delivery available if I want to send anything important.
Some public companies are best left alone. Along with the PO I would include the NHS, the BBC and grammar schools.
What we really want to get rid of are local authorities who charge thousands a year for their low quality service. The Post Office costs me only pennies, with below inflation price rises, and I have a daily service. The council costs mount exponentially, and I get a load of overpaid councillors sitting in pointless meetings pretending they're important and a weekly refuse collection. I know which I think is value for money!

Biscuit - 05 May 2004 17:01 - 8 of 320

Very true Zoltar,

Why does the British government want to privatise for privatisations sake? The PO belongs to the public anyway, has anyone asked if the public want it sold? What was the big problem in funding Royal Mail. OK it cost 2bn a year but in order to make it profitable you had to sack 30,000 employees, so now don't you just spend the 2bn on unemployment benefit? Besides it works (or sorry did work before MP's started tinkering through Post Comm and Postwatch, since when does one company have 2 watchdogs watching it??? Looks to me like Royal Mail is been set up to fail so that the public say it's a good thing that it is sold. Did you know that the British Railways were the most efficient in europe before they were privatised, I very much doubt they are anymore??!!
Damn it, I'm going to write to my MP

Socrates - 12 Sep 2013 11:23 - 9 of 320

I can't believe I started this thread in 2004, had to look at it to confirm it actually was me. Still relevant 9 years on, amazing.

skinny - 12 Sep 2013 11:25 - 10 of 320

I've just registered and I've told Sid.

Socrates - 12 Sep 2013 11:32 - 11 of 320

I shall register but will make up my mind when I see the prospectus and offer price. Just don't get the feeling that postal services are money spinners. Lots of competition cherry picking the profitable services.

dreamcatcher - 12 Sep 2013 11:35 - 12 of 320

I'm staying with UK mail group.

mitzy - 12 Sep 2013 12:12 - 13 of 320

Any idea of the float price..

..I was thinking 120p/130p..

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 12:25 - 14 of 320

Can there be a float and strike at Royal Mail? The government's announcement of its intention to float Royal Mail on the stock exchange is not irreversible, avoid.

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 16:10 - 15 of 320

Today the Government announced its intention to sell off Royal Mail.

This might be good news for the bankers but it is bad news for Royal Mail customers. 127,000 people have signed the petition to save the Royal Mail and protect its services. Last week the petition was taken to Downing Street.

There is still time to make our voices heard and protect Royal Mail services.

Please take a moment to send an urgent email to your MP today to tell them why you want to protect the Royal Mail.

Below are some suggestions to include in your email.

Thank you for your support,

P.S. If you are on Twitter tweet your support for the campaign.

Some suggestions for email to your MP:

I am writing to express my concerns over plans to privatise Royal Mail.
The elderly, people in rural areas and small businesses will be particularly hard hit by the inevitable price rises and service reductions that will follow this privatisation.
Recent polling shows that 70% of the British public oppose this unnecessary privatisation.
Royal Mail is a successful public sector enterprise. This is an unnecessary and ultimately political privatisation.

daves dazzlers - 12 Sep 2013 16:27 - 16 of 320

120/130 mitzy that would be nice,could be looking at £2 i would of said.
Count me in !

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 16:31 - 17 of 320

why is it bad for customers?
for that matter, why do the unions reckon it's bad for them?

has privatised gas or water been bad for the customer?
in many ways no, though it's impossible to determine whether pricing would have been any less if left in state ownership

has privatised rail been bad for the customer?
on balance, probably yes, but i don't recollect it was much chop before, and heaven knows what fun the militant unions would have had

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 16:42 - 18 of 320

You are far to immature to respond to, particularly on this subject.

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 16:46 - 19 of 320

is that so?
you mean you totally disagree? ..... well that's your prerogative, but there's no need to be so immature in your response

i wonder if there will be any increase in thieving once the mail is privatised?

btw, weren't the docks state-owned many years ago?
if so, privatising those has been magical on almost all fronts

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 16:51 - 20 of 320

Yes, it is so, you really must get some help for your own good and people around you, I'm assuming that there are people around you of course.

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 16:58 - 21 of 320

what a wondrous intelligent response from you stan, but then i think you're a close buddy of findus, so i shouldn't be surprised

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:00 - 22 of 320

Thank you.

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:03 - 23 of 320

so tell me stan, are the unions afraid that (a) their power will become fragmented in that sector and/or (b) jobs will go with no decrease in efficiency?

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:06 - 24 of 320

See post 18.

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:08 - 25 of 320

ah! another ignorant response from you
if you don't know the answers, just say so; no one will think any the worse of you

rekirkham - 12 Sep 2013 17:11 - 26 of 320

Did not Mrs Thatcher or someone want to sell off the Royal Mail some years ago ?
Why has it not happened sooner ?

I can not recall for sure. Maybe I am getting old and senile ?

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:13 - 27 of 320

you're right, but for whatever reason, she reckoned it was too big a task

mitzy - 12 Sep 2013 17:13 - 28 of 320

She said she would not sell something with the Queens head on a stamp or something.

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:14 - 29 of 320

"I cannot recall for sure. Maybe I am getting old and senile ?" possibly -):

Thatcher actually said something like "selling the RM off was a step to far"

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:17 - 30 of 320

I asked this of someone else on another thread Cynic, Have you considered dropping dead at all lately?

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:21 - 31 of 320

tell me stan, have you ever thought of making other than ignorant comment?

perhaps you feel vulnerable or inadequate because you cannot answer some fairly basic questions raised

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:25 - 32 of 320

I refer you again to post 18.

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:29 - 33 of 320

dear oh dear!
that's about as pathetic an answer as it gets
stan the man (or mouse) is clearly totally bereft of any answers let alone an ability to admit ignorance where he has no answers

rekirkham - 12 Sep 2013 17:30 - 34 of 320

I will drop dead - if someone will volunteer to pay my funeral expenses.

Please advise soonest as I am presently in good health

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:31 - 35 of 320

It's nearly tea time and it's your turn, so off with you -):

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:33 - 36 of 320

Ask Cynic to pay rk, he seems flush with all the holidays he seems to take.

Chris Carson - 12 Sep 2013 17:33 - 37 of 320

Bring it on! If nothing else to annoy the red flag flyers. :O)

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:39 - 38 of 320

is stan in his early 20's?
he certainly has extreme immaturity on his side, and also an all-too-common dose of the politics of jealousy

Chris Carson - 12 Sep 2013 17:40 - 39 of 320

Stan has been hanging around with Freddy boy for far to long, so what can you expect?

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 17:43 - 40 of 320

Oh and Cynic... Can you lend me a fiver by any chance? -):

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 17:47 - 41 of 320

oh fred's generally ok, even if he does have this fixation about not voting - but then i have one that says one categorically should

fred likes being contentious (as do i), and when he remembers to write succinctly, he can occasionally make an intelligent point or issue

=============

stan - i already support st mungo's ..... perhaps try selling big issue if they think you're a worthy case to take on their books

dreamcatcher - 12 Sep 2013 17:54 - 42 of 320

How long to the day, that you walk to the end of the road and collect your mail from like a central station. The postmen are already being taken for idiots in this area with extra mail and rounds being given to them. We get our mail most days at About 2pm, hardly first class.

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 18:03 - 43 of 320

so much mail is rubbish, that maybe the "box" will be beside a paper recycling bin!

dreamcatcher - 12 Sep 2013 18:06 - 44 of 320

lol. Visited some friends in Florida and they had like a mail room down the road with a lock box for your address. Bad news for the workforce this.

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 18:14 - 45 of 320

Where's that fiver then?

cynic - 12 Sep 2013 20:25 - 46 of 320

listen up stan ..... if you don't like the idea of the mail being privatised, then explain why .... so far you have shown yourself totally incapable of so doing .... as to the fiver, try reading the response

Stan - 12 Sep 2013 21:11 - 47 of 320

Come on pay up... Your not Jewish are you -):

dreamcatcher - 12 Sep 2013 21:53 - 48 of 320

Labour 'could renationalise Royal Mail after 2015'
Labour leader Ed Miliband is under pressure to agree to renationalise Royal Mail if he wins the next election.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/10298811/Labour-could-renationalise-Royal-Mail-after-2015.html

skinny - 04 Oct 2013 08:18 - 49 of 320

Sorry, ma'am, but Royal Mail sell-off means no more crowning glory

HARRYCAT - 04 Oct 2013 08:51 - 50 of 320

That's quite interesting skinny. I wonder why the Queens wear a crown but the Kings don't? It can't just be vanity..... can it?!

skinny - 04 Oct 2013 08:55 - 51 of 320

Probably down to Victoria! Joking aside - I've no idea.

The Other Kevin - 04 Oct 2013 12:17 - 52 of 320

Looking like three times oversubscribed which means the price is likely to be near the top end of the range, according to a BBC pundit.

ExecLine - 04 Oct 2013 12:39 - 53 of 320

Anyone know what the Royal Mail epic is going to be?

'RM.' is actually 'RM PLC' ORD 2P

skinny - 04 Oct 2013 12:43 - 54 of 320

LATE ? :-)

HARRYCAT - 04 Oct 2013 12:46 - 55 of 320

LOST?

ExecLine - 04 Oct 2013 12:53 - 56 of 320

"I tried to post your Epic but you were out."

Note: Please allow sufficient time for the Postman to return to the Glasgow Distribution Centre and Sorting Office before collecting your letter or parcel.

:-)

halifax - 04 Oct 2013 13:02 - 57 of 320

RTS?

skinny - 04 Oct 2013 13:06 - 58 of 320

I think its actually RMG ?

ExecLine - 04 Oct 2013 13:08 - 59 of 320

My daughter is "having a go" and likes the idea of doing it on the Royal Mail web site and paying by Direct Debit. After chatting with me about the 'old days of privatisations' and IPOs, she feels this method will tell her immediately as to whether her application is likely to be successful.

I was telling her how in the old days, just pinning your cheque in the wrong place on the application form or even using a safety pin instead of a regular pin, could invalidate the form, with the result the application would be unsuccessful - and you thus wouldn't get any shares.

People used to 'stag' the offers (use any and all immediately available cash, even by borrowing some, so as to buy shares and sell their holding immediately the shares hit the market). Thus if they were doing this it was very important to be able to know:
Q1. If you had been granted shares and
Q2. If so, how many.

I had a go at stagging one or two issues myself:

A1. This could be ascertained by whether the application form's cheque had been presented. If it had, then you knew 'you were in'.
A2. This info' was in the press or on TV and a quick calculation, if 'you were in' was all that was needed to be able to deal without actually holding or yet being in possession of your share certificate.

She doesn't yet have a Trading Account with anyone so she yet needs to get that sorted
She has also decided to request a Share Certificate with her online application.

Anyone any comments? Is she doing the right thing with her methodology?

kernow - 04 Oct 2013 16:44 - 60 of 320

If holding then it hardly matters. Tuck the cert away somewhere safe.
I seem to recall a lot of brokers ready to offer deals to sell with share certs. but if looking for quick out she'll need to wait for the paper to arrive first.
Also fwiw I think all applications beyond the minimum will be scaled back as it is oversubscribed.

HARRYCAT - 04 Oct 2013 17:07 - 61 of 320

I see broker Charles Stanley has changed it's charges for CREST accounts and paper certificates to annual charge of £480 (execution only, new clients) & £50 transaction charge (certificate)+ £15 dealing fee. The idea is to put pressure on clients to move to pooled nominee accounts and internet dealing only. I wouldn't be surprised for others to follow suit as the costs of producing paper certs is getting higher as demand falls.

skinny - 08 Oct 2013 11:51 - 62 of 320

Britain set to price Royal Mail sale at top of range - sources

LONDON | Tue Oct 8, 2013 11:44am BST
(Reuters) - Britain is on track to sell shares in Royal Mail at the top of its range, two sources close to the deal said, valuing the postal service at more than $5 billion (3 billion pounds) on the final day that investors can put in orders.

Despite the threat of strike action from delivery staff and criticism from opposition lawmakers, the government is close to completing the sale of a majority stake in the near 500-year-old Royal Mail - the fourth attempt to sell off the postal service.

The privatisation, which at the top of the expected price range would value Royal Mail at 3.3 billion pounds ($5.3 billion), is Britain's biggest since John Major's Conservative government sold the railways in the 1990s.

The stock market offering has received strong demand from the outset, and investors have now been told those with orders below 330 pence per share, the top of an original 260p-330p range, risk missing out, the sources said.

Investors have also been warned that, due to strong demand, they should expect their orders to be scaled back.

The financial spread betting firm IG is predicting the shares could close between 385 pence and 405 pence on their stock market debut on Friday.

IG Chief Market Strategist David Jones said the success of past big privatisations such as BT and British Gas was probably attracting retail investors.

"People have got memories about how well these government sell-offs did back in the 1980s and 90s," he said. "With those, there were decent windfall profits on the first day."

Despite the strong demand, many members of the public are against the sale, with a YouGov survey in July showing two-thirds of British adults opposed the privatisation.

The government has said around 30 percent of the shares on offer are expected to go to individual members of the public, who must spend a minimum of 750 pounds to invest in the company.

It has also agreed to hand 10 percent of Royal Mail's shares to staff in the largest share giveaway of any major UK privatisation. If they are distributed equally among the 150,000 eligible UK-based workers, each could receive 2,200 pounds' worth.

POLITICAL OPPOSITION

The sale of Royal Mail follows the flotation of its Belgian peer bpost in June and comes as strong equity markets have helped to revive new listings in Europe this year. European flotations raised $15.9 billion in the first nine months - three times the year-ago level, according to Thomson Reuters data.

On Tuesday, vodka maker Stock Spirits began taking orders for its London share sale, while the debt collection firm Arrow Global saw its shares open higher on their London debut.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Robin Byde has estimated Royal Mail is valued at around 8 times earnings, below an average of about 10 for the European sector, including peers such as bpost and Austrian Post.

On Monday, British Business Secretary Vince Cable accused the opposition Labour party, which has said taxpayers could be short-changed by the sale, of irresponsibly talking up the value of Royal Mail.

Labour is opposed to the timing of the sale, which it says is designed to bolster Britain's public finances, but has resisted calls from party activists and trade unions to pledge to renationalise the firm if it wins power in a 2015 election.

Three sell-off attempts in the last 19 years have failed due to opposition from within the governing majority, which feared an electoral backlash from tampering with a revered institution.

Unions are currently balloting for strike action, although the ballot will close after Royal Mail makes its market debut.

Institutional investors have until 1600 GMT to put in orders for the sale, being run by Goldman Sachs and UBS, while individual retail buyers have until 2259 GMT.

($1 = 0.6219 British pounds)

skinny - 09 Oct 2013 16:04 - 63 of 320

Royal Mail shares 'seven times over-subscribed'

The Royal Mail share-offering for private investors was seven times over-subscribed, with 700,000 applications in total, according to the Business Secretary Vince Cable.

Speaking to a committee in parliament, he said he was "confident" the shares were "priced in the right place".

chessplayer - 09 Oct 2013 16:38 - 64 of 320

I don't know what it means for the immediate future, but I can assure you that there is a good deal of unrest among the staff about this whole thing.

HARRYCAT - 09 Oct 2013 17:03 - 65 of 320

Not sure that will have any effect on the outcome. As explained in a TV documentary recently, Royal Mail are now profitable (just) and need to compete with UPS, Fedex, TNT and others in a competitive parcel/package market. Letter volume has dwindled dramatically so Royal Mail has had to adapt. I'm sorry for those that have lost their jobs, but it makes the jobs of those that are left far more secure, imo.

goldfinger - 09 Oct 2013 17:30 - 66 of 320

Graeme Wearden‏@graemewearden31m
MPs grill Vince Cable over Royal Mail's (much over-subscribed) flotation: 5 key points

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/09/us-debt-deadlock-keeps-gnawing-at-markets-live#block-525574d3e4b072f7f7f2a97c

Posted on Twitter.....

cynic - 09 Oct 2013 20:26 - 67 of 320

harry - i wonder if privatisation will lessen the incidence of theft and mail being opened en route

goldfinger - 09 Oct 2013 20:30 - 68 of 320

Are you taking part cynic???????.

Im not touching it with a barge pole.

Come wed and no ceiling agreed theyl fall like a lead weight.

HARRYCAT - 09 Oct 2013 21:23 - 69 of 320

Mr C., to be fair to my local Royal Mail they have performed really well, on time & very friendly over the last ten years. I have not had any cause to complain and they are the last and only service to get a Xmas tip from me. In the old days, the dustmen, coal merchants, milkman etc all got Xmas tips from my parents. The postman is the last of the neighbourhood services which has a human touch. Shame to see them go, imo, but that's progress and I think even these guys see that change has to happen as they are all a bit embarrassed at having to deliver junk mail in place of real letters.

goldfinger - 09 Oct 2013 21:33 - 70 of 320

I give an xmas tip to my window cleaner.

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 06:29 - 71 of 320

I hope he declares it! :-)

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 08:22 - 72 of 320

Skinny doesnt need to its a gift. See present Income tax Laws.

HARRYCAT - 10 Oct 2013 08:26 - 73 of 320

BBC have said 330p will be the float price.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 08:31 - 74 of 320

And they reckon it could hit 400p on first day.

Daily Spread bet may be a good way to play this.

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 08:36 - 75 of 320

IG quoting 3950 - 4150.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 08:43 - 76 of 320

ehhhhhhhhhh tight so and sos.

plan down the swanny.

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 08:47 - 77 of 320

Just moved - 3975.0 - 4175.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 08:53 - 78 of 320

Is their a lock in for Hedge funds Skinny any idea?.

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 08:56 - 79 of 320

No idea - I've applied for 2 lots, but as I feared, it looks likely to be heavily scaled back.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 09:19 - 80 of 320

Yep feared that.

Just wondering if the Hedgies will take a very fast buck given the probs in the US.

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 09:47 - 81 of 320

Over 4 on the bid now.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 09:50 - 82 of 320

Just appeared on twitter.......

Robert Peston ‏@Peston 1h
If you applied for > £10k Royal Mail shares, you get 0. But if you went for min £750, you get £750. See update

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24470086

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 09:54 - 83 of 320

GF - read to the bottom :-

"I was told earlier that the decision to go for the cut off at £10,000 plus had been taken.

I have now been informed that the decision will in fact be taken in the coming hours.

It may turn out that my report of zero shares for those applying for more than £10,000 worth will be right. Or it may not.

Which leaves me feeling a little bit foolish, but that's not so unusual."

And who the hell is Mrs Miggins!!

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 10:01 - 84 of 320

God knows.

Peston seems to have got himself in a pickle, but to be fair it does say hes updating all along.

Stan - 10 Oct 2013 13:46 - 85 of 320

Is that Miggins or Muggins?

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 14:54 - 86 of 320

Currently 4075.0 - 4275.0

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 16:33 - 87 of 320

Looks like I might get 2 lots of £753 - 228 shares.

How many Royal Mail shares could you get?

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 16:36 - 88 of 320

IG‏@IGcom2m
Guess the #RoyalMail IPO price at 9am tomorrow. Closest wins an IG tshirt! Use #IGRoyalMail. Entries in by 7.45am

https://twitter.com/IGcom/status/388325878670712832/photo/1

ExecLine - 10 Oct 2013 16:40 - 89 of 320

Beat you skinny!

Based on the government upping the retail selling from 30% to 33%, I think I'm getting two lots of 250 shares costing £825.

;-)

Stan - 10 Oct 2013 16:41 - 90 of 320

Not fair... I didn't get any.

halifax - 10 Oct 2013 16:45 - 91 of 320

what a pathetic waste of time!

skinny - 10 Oct 2013 16:46 - 92 of 320

Have you got a link?

ExecLine - 10 Oct 2013 16:50 - 93 of 320

At £3.30 the 20p per share yield works out at 6.06% gross.

If the shares kick off at £4.00, then the yield is still 5% gross.

At £4.50, the yield drops to 4.44% gross and IMHO, this isn't too bad a yield to buy for.

However, if RM's sales drop by 9%, then they lose £200m in revenue, and the ability to be paying out the dividend would then get to look a bit dodgy.

My bet would be, that it opens at around £4.40, wobbles and then begins to drop back to £4.20 with profit-taking.

Bullshare - 10 Oct 2013 16:53 - 94 of 320

Well whatever you get, the stock will start trading (conditionally) tomorrow from opening auction . Epic code: RMG

Mike

ExecLine - 10 Oct 2013 17:29 - 95 of 320

Interesting 'Daily' chart at:

http://www.ig.com/uk/ig-shares/royal-mail-market-cap-mn

Stan - 10 Oct 2013 17:49 - 96 of 320

I'm so disgusted that I won't be voting Conservative now.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 17:58 - 97 of 320

Royal Mail IPO: ALL retail applications from £750 to £10000 get exactly the same allocation - 227 shares (at 330p)

mitzy - 10 Oct 2013 19:16 - 98 of 320

Members of my family have applied for £750 worth of shares..

instant 30% profit and down the pub for a couple of beers.

Fred1new - 10 Oct 2013 19:48 - 99 of 320

Stan.

Nothing wrong with the tories, they are always helping the poor.

Bought 4 lots at £750 for my daughters, when I heard the rumpus in the jungle, just made it before the bell.

==

Just before the stalker posts, even a god is allowed to change sides.

goldfinger - 10 Oct 2013 20:22 - 100 of 320

Kept that quiet Fred. Nice one if you can multiply by 5. That is if you had £750 aswel.

Stan - 10 Oct 2013 20:26 - 101 of 320

"Stan.

Nothing wrong with the tories, they are always helping the poor."

More like "helping themselves" to the poor -):

Balerboy - 10 Oct 2013 20:33 - 102 of 320

You got to be a rich tory stan being able to invest more than £10,000 in RMG.....

Stan - 10 Oct 2013 20:37 - 103 of 320

And who exactly said I invested that much in RMG. BB?

driver - 10 Oct 2013 21:34 - 104 of 320

What a bugger I ask for £10001 worth never mind ill wait for the NHS sale.

Martini - 11 Oct 2013 00:57 - 105 of 320

What a mess. Sold it too cheap. Pissed off a lot of their core supporters by handing the bulk to the big boys. I got my £750 fortunately only applied for £10k in my ISA and would have gone more, if I had been outside that, and got nothing.

What could have been a vote winner has dented their claims of economic competence.

What confidence in their ability to get LLoyds and maybe RBS away next?

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 01:09 - 106 of 320

NONE.

driver - 11 Oct 2013 05:39 - 107 of 320

Martini

"Could have been a vote winner" LOL !!!!!!

skinny - 11 Oct 2013 06:30 - 108 of 320

What an absolute joke - I'm less than impressed with my allocation from Hargreaves Lansdown.

97 & 129 shares in two accounts.

gibby - 11 Oct 2013 06:49 - 109 of 320

what a waste of time this was then - very disappointing - still its a government run debacle so par for the course I suppose - heyho

tomasz - 11 Oct 2013 08:07 - 110 of 320

im watching the tape and I never seen that busy exchange.wow

skinny - 11 Oct 2013 08:08 - 111 of 320

Hopeless if you want to sell atm.

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:09 - 112 of 320

Shambles.

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 08:22 - 113 of 320

i'm much amused by you guys
some/all of you bitch that you had your allocations slashed - it shows that joe public liked the flotation a lot, for whatever reason
some/all of you then complain that you can't sell/trade them - clearly you only bought to scalp so hard cheese if your broker doesn't yet quote for them (IG does and price is steady)
some of you just bitch like crazy, though probably out of habit, as you didn't even apply for any and wouldn't touch them with a barge pole (apparently)

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:23 - 114 of 320

Cynic your a trouble maker FO.

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:24 - 115 of 320

From Peston on the stock market floor........

Paul Mason ‏@paulmasonnews 1m
There's a lot of interest in shorting #RM I have to say

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 08:26 - 116 of 320

oh I see - you don't like being swiped at then
i'm so dreadfully sorry - I didn't realise that was the private domain of you and your left-wing cronies

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:30 - 117 of 320

You as usual start confrontations and then walk away not to be seen again.

Get everybody going at each other and then seem to take some warped personal delight in this. So i say again youve been rumbled.......... FO.

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:31 - 118 of 320

Paul Mason ‏@paulmasonnews 2m
Feeling is this is a massive windfall profit for institutions who got loads of shares rather than small investors

from City of London, London

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 08:32 - 119 of 320

oh dear oh dear oh dear ..... you're very happy to dish out truck loads of rotting tripe but can't take it at all when a bit comes winging back
how pathetic, but reminiscent of a schoolboy bully

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:35 - 120 of 320

Get a brain scan. Your going funny in the head, now FO.

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:36 - 121 of 320

Equity Development ‏@equity_research 4m
$RMG Royal Mail: IPO size (inc Over Allotment) exactly 600 million shares. After 30 minutes trading 91 million shares have traded...Now 446p

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 08:39 - 122 of 320

you seem frightfully interested for someone who wouldn't touch them with a bargepole - allegedly

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:39 - 123 of 320

by Harriet Green
October 11, 2013, 8:29am
Royal mail shares have opened at 450p (from 330p sale price) as grey market trading begins this morning. The 36 per cent increase means that the Royal Mail is large enough to join the FTSE 100.

Joe Rundle, ETX Capital:

Royal Mail (RMG.L) makes it dazzling stock market debut by jumping up to 450p, over some 30% above pricing and settled at 437p after 10 minutes into the market open. Pre-market indications had the shares popping up as high as 420p, a huge big premium to the shares on offer by the government, priced at the top end at 330p.

Our grey-market listing, which was launched back in July 2013, indicated a dramatic debut above 400p as our retail and institutional clients piled into to get a piece of this historic and controversial pie. The jump in the shares above 400p will certainly see the UK government being criticised for selling the company too cheaply, ripping off UK taxpayers but it must be noted that institutional allocations [bid above £10k] have been scaled back this time, allowing allocation to retail clients which should go down neatly in general sentiment across the public that your man on the street could together with a institution, be a participant in this historic IPO for the UK market.

There’s been a lot of hype and noises about this IPO, indeed it was over 20 times subscribed [over 700k individual applications] – the mix of 33% of retail investors and 67% to institutional. So on the first day of trade for RMG, it’s likely we will see some selling pressure after the stellar open which could see the UK government under some pressure to defend the price it was sold off. But, UK government will support their approach on how the company was floated on the market, hailing it as a success –indeed, it was cleverly engineered in such a manner before next year’s elections—and the government will claim that institutions and retail investors all had a fair opportunity to subscribe.

Looking to the immediate future for RMG, the threat of industrial action still looms, structural problems such as a lack of adequate capital and unclear growth strategy are likely to weigh on the stock price. Management and MPs will have to continue talking up RMG in the run up to the UK elections next year, with the market now looking out for details on how this company will adapt, expand and deliver rewards to its investors.
- See more at: http://www.cityam.com/blog/1381476560/royal-mail-shares-debut-450p#sthash.ZxNAAc6v.dpuf

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:45 - 124 of 320

Laura Kuenssberg ‏@ITVLauraK 7m

Also hearing only one big UK institution made it into top 10 in Royal Mail placings - other countries' sovereign wealth funds won out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 08:47 - 125 of 320

David Buik ‏@truemagic68 4m

I hear that one Sovereign Wealth Managment Fund was issued less RMG shares than his mother was! I think Dr Cable meant what he said!

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 08:49 - 126 of 320

one of the above statements may have an element of truth, but clearly not both

meanwhile, IG L2 shows bid/offer of 55m to 3m ..... clearly not much shorting interest there then!

Bullshare - 11 Oct 2013 08:54 - 127 of 320

And back to the subject please !!!

Chris Carson - 11 Oct 2013 08:58 - 128 of 320

Cap Spreads current spread is 2.5 for spread betters.

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 09:00 - 129 of 320

true market or CFDs with IG shows 0.25p

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 09:02 - 130 of 320

Somebody on twitter saying platform is locked at gridlock. cant trade either way on s bets.

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 09:02 - 131 of 320

Paul Mason ‏@paulmasonnews 1m
#RM I've seen 3x bull markets in my career and none of them involved food banks & falling wages (3/5)

from Camden, London

Chris Carson - 11 Oct 2013 09:03 - 132 of 320

I'm staying clear at mo cynic, you having a dabble?

skinny - 11 Oct 2013 09:03 - 133 of 320

I haven't been able to logon to HL all morning - tough if you want to trade anything!

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 09:20 - 134 of 320

no I didn't and shan't chris, though more from laziness and innate disinterest than anything else

mitzy - 11 Oct 2013 09:23 - 135 of 320

Disinterest = unbiased.

Seymour Clearly - 11 Oct 2013 09:58 - 136 of 320

Selftrade announced that I should be able to trade them by Tuesday when my £750 worth should be allocated and the remaining cash transferred back. Get what you pay for I suppose.

kernow - 11 Oct 2013 10:18 - 137 of 320

Share centre works OK and I've ditched my paltry holding

HARRYCAT - 11 Oct 2013 10:38 - 138 of 320

Just heard on BBC news that retail investors will have a 1 week lock in period before they can trade their shares. Not sure if that is correct based on the above posts!

skinny - 11 Oct 2013 12:08 - 139 of 320

Its not!

HARRYCAT - 11 Oct 2013 13:01 - 140 of 320

Probably another Pesto faux pas!

skinny - 11 Oct 2013 13:04 - 141 of 320

Green or red? :-)

daves dazzlers - 11 Oct 2013 13:13 - 142 of 320

Its a very sweet day atm long may it continue.

MaxK - 11 Oct 2013 13:42 - 143 of 320

Royal Mail: postmen given shares will 'take the money and go on strike'

Postmen who have been given free shares in Royal Mail while tens of thousand of people have missed out will "take the money and go on strike", a union leader said

By Steven Swinford, and Christopher Hope

8:50AM BST 11 Oct 2013

A total of 149,632 postmen – equivalent to 99.75 per cent – have been given £2,200 worth of free shares as part of the privatisation of the 500-year-old company.

However, on Wednesday the Communication Workers Union will announce the result of a ballot for industrial action.

Billy Hayes, the union's leader, said that the free shares will not make a "scintilla of difference" to the outcome of the ballot.

He said: "Why not [take the money and then go on strike]? These executives make big killings and run down a service. It's about greed.

"There's no celebrations in delivery offices throughout the country. We have got Sovereign wealth funds. Kuwait has bought shares in Royal Mail, Singapore has bought shares. We're going to have a situation where the royal family in Kuwait has more influence over the postal service in the UK than the royal family in this country."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-mail/10371642/Royal-Mail-postmen-given-shares-will-take-the-money-and-go-on-strike.html

goldfinger - 11 Oct 2013 15:36 - 144 of 320

wONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF po GO ON STRIKE????????????

Fred1new - 11 Oct 2013 16:14 - 145 of 320

Well done Cameron didling the Treasury out of £billion and claiming it was a success.

Bonkers.

Friday 11th October 2013 | 14:02

David Cameron: Royal Mail privatisation has got off to a very good start

The NHS is safe in his hand and also the UK's economy.

He must be high on something.

halifax - 11 Oct 2013 16:17 - 146 of 320

how much would you bid for the NHS? what not even half a crown!

skinny - 11 Oct 2013 16:22 - 147 of 320

A flourish to finish!

Chart.aspx?Provider=Intra&Code=RMG&Size=

tomasz - 11 Oct 2013 16:44 - 148 of 320

max k,
...Singapore, Kuwait bought royal mail shares... well,.. even pesky polish bought/sold/bought/sold...recently bought and holding -mean here sweet ASOS-...just to sold later and buy again afterwards...to sell again and to buy again...lol

I mean times changing...you even have to share your driveway parking space todays sometimes...
global warming...
lol

cynic - 11 Oct 2013 17:30 - 149 of 320

mitzy - may I be disinterested as well uninterested in this one? ...... I certainly wasn't biased one way or another, but had no interest in participating

fred - though is suspect the price will stay stable, I could easily be wrong and perhaps it will tumble, but only when things settle down can you make any judgment call on whether or not the shares were underpriced.

in any case, surely it was a better call to make the shares "good value" to ensure that the sale went well, than to take a gamble and to have priced them (with hindsight) at say 425 ...... had they been priced that high, it is likely, though a paradox, that the flotation would have been a flop

little woman - 14 Oct 2013 10:27 - 150 of 320

Found it..... Spelt the epic wrong!

Seymour Clearly - 14 Oct 2013 11:22 - 151 of 320

Have decided just to keep mine - the yield is good and I always have spare cash in my account, so I might as well collect the divi.

Fred1new - 14 Oct 2013 12:40 - 152 of 320

ummmmh!

cynic - 14 Oct 2013 12:42 - 153 of 320

someone gagged you? :-)

Fred1new - 15 Oct 2013 10:37 - 154 of 320

Actually, was thinking of dumping early yesterday.

But think sense is being seen in USA over debt extension.

Think there is further up trend for a while and yield may be OK.

Watching with interest.

-====---

But so much for the experts valuations and political expediency or face saving which has cheated or robbed part of the general public.

All adds up.

Fred1new - 15 Oct 2013 10:37 - 155 of 320

.

Seymour Clearly - 15 Oct 2013 13:20 - 156 of 320

So have you ever cheated or robbed part of the general public Fred? (Just wondering why you said this when you've bought as many RMG shares as you could).

cynic - 15 Oct 2013 13:39 - 157 of 320

fred - you should be ashamed, or was it ultimately, "what price principles?"

Chris Carson - 15 Oct 2013 15:37 - 158 of 320

Typical Fred - Talks The Talk (Left wing nutter) never Walks The Walk. Gobshite!

Fred1new - 15 Oct 2013 15:42 - 159 of 320

Forgive me god I have led and lead an impure life.

As long as it is "legal" should I not allowed myself to benefit, or should I let others do so to my disadvantages?

I am not allowing myself to be bought, even though there is the stench of corrupt political ideology behind the knock down sell off.

The proceeds will be given to my children, after it has gone through a Chinese bank with less supervision than our "regulated" UK banks.

Seymour Clearly - 15 Oct 2013 15:56 - 160 of 320

Ah well, your principles must guide you with those tricky moral decisions you have to make in life. As long as you can sleep easy then all's right with the world.

cynic - 15 Oct 2013 16:32 - 161 of 320

"As long as it is "legal" should I not allowed myself to benefit"
of course you should, but it is then singularly hypocritical of you to berate those who take sensible tax avoidance precautions ..... the rationalisation that "the proceeds will be given to my children" is no more than that

Fred1new - 15 Oct 2013 17:40 - 162 of 320

If tax avoidance schemes are legal I have not condemned individuals who are making use of such.

However, I do condemned governments for the hypocrisy for allowing provision of such loopholes.

And I think the tax system needs review and many tax "allowances" stopped.

Also, I dislike the ability for some escaping "tax liabilities" on "wealth" produced by those living in the UK, but themselves living outside the country and still manipulating policies of the country for their own benefits.

I was not rationalising, when suggesting I will give the proceeds to my children. I don't feel any need to, I was stating my intent and anticipated the response.

cynic - 15 Oct 2013 17:44 - 163 of 320

fred - methinks you speak with forked tongue or even dissimulation! .... i won't bother to expand on what is one of your less well thought out postings

Seymour Clearly - 16 Oct 2013 10:01 - 164 of 320

Having said I'll keep mine, I've now sold at 483p as the price was just too attractive. I think there's still volatility ahead and I can't refuse such a quick return, even though it's only a few hundred quid.

Fred, I will also give the proceeds to my children. Off to make a will.

Fred1new - 16 Oct 2013 10:21 - 165 of 320

I am off to get a health check.

Eternity here I come!

cynic - 16 Oct 2013 10:45 - 166 of 320

immortality only lasts as long as you are remembered

who now remembers the founding-father (james braidwood) of the london fire brigade, though at his funeral in 1861 thousands and thousands turned out including some of the aristocracy in person - almost unheard of

sic transit gloria mundi

Fred1new - 16 Oct 2013 10:53 - 167 of 320

I thought that was Guy Fawkes.

cynic - 16 Oct 2013 10:56 - 168 of 320

goes to show what a pleb you are :-)

skinny - 16 Oct 2013 15:03 - 169 of 320

Royal Mail workers to go on strike

Royal Mail workers vote to go on national 24-hour strike on 4 November, postal union announces

Seymour Clearly - 16 Oct 2013 15:35 - 170 of 320

Gives them time to go out & spend their share money I suppose.

Fred1new - 16 Oct 2013 15:41 - 171 of 320

They can't sell their shares yet.

Martini - 16 Oct 2013 16:11 - 172 of 320

Added a few more at 472. Strike is hardly a surprise.

Stan - 16 Oct 2013 17:40 - 173 of 320

Deal imminent now IMHO.

littlebert2 - 17 Oct 2013 08:23 - 174 of 320

Anyone else STILL waiting for their 'allocation' number? Having been kept waiting in Equinitis cash generating 'phone queues, only to be told I can't do anything until they email the number to me, here I sit, three days later and unable to sell even if I wanted to.

Martini - 17 Oct 2013 08:47 - 175 of 320

I have seen similar comments elsewhere so you are not alone.

littlebert2 - 17 Oct 2013 10:40 - 176 of 320

Well - After another 10 minute wait in the helpline queue, they are now insisting I requested a paper certificate !!! Complete pile of BS ...I haven't seen one let alone traded using one for nearly 10 years .... simply blatent market manipulation to prevent small holders from selling ... and it'll now cost me more/take longer to sell than it should.

edit: Quick scoot around the internet and it looks like Equiniti have shafted a lot more than the 0.07% they stated who have been issued with paper certificates instead of a nominee accnt. And they will be charging £10 for the certificate and £45 to trade it ..... little bit more than the £7.50 they were supposed to charge private investors! Let's see .... 700,000 investors at £47.50 additional over and above .... nice little earner they got there.

Fred1new - 18 Oct 2013 16:20 - 177 of 320

Just flog out of Mail.

Thank you Vince, George and Wavy Dave for returning some of my tax to me.

I am sorry you overvalued it so much!

But the markets are difficult.

How much have your city friends made?

PS

When are pushing your barrows back into street to sell more of the silver?

Chris Carson - 18 Oct 2013 16:38 - 178 of 320

Complaining you could'nt sell em the other day Knobhead!

doodlebug4 - 18 Oct 2013 16:41 - 179 of 320

lol !

cynic - 18 Oct 2013 17:00 - 180 of 320

fred is a leading light of the board's resident griping, grizzling and whingeing panel ......

it'll never be proved, but it is said that the institutions would have backed away had the price been any higher than 360 (or whatever it was) ..... should their bluff have been called, and if the offer had then had only lukewarm support, what reaction from his nibs then?

goldfinger - 18 Oct 2013 17:05 - 181 of 320

Cyners said......."fred is very good at criticising and griping" .............ends...... what and your not???????????????????????????????????????

Fred1new - 18 Oct 2013 17:09 - 182 of 320

GF.

He doesn't like salt in his wounds.

8-)

goldfinger - 18 Oct 2013 17:12 - 183 of 320

LOL, or his foreskin.

Wait on a minute is he jewish. (no offence meant)

cynic - 18 Oct 2013 17:24 - 184 of 320

i am disgusted by your anti-semitic slur! :-))

btw, never try grated ginger root or "deep heat"

halifax - 18 Oct 2013 17:28 - 185 of 320

cynic "sticks and stones etc" you can't change them they will always be bigots.

goldfinger - 18 Oct 2013 17:28 - 186 of 320

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.

cynic - 18 Oct 2013 17:33 - 187 of 320

hali - you don't REALLY think i was offended surely?

halifax - 18 Oct 2013 17:39 - 188 of 320

not at all but it is necessary to take the "reptiles" on occasionally.

Martini - 18 Oct 2013 22:48 - 189 of 320

Getting back to the share price. What a good end to the week. I expected to see a drop from £5 but it powered through with the Big Boys seemingly intent on mopping up the PI sells.

I suppose a probable entrance into the FT100 is driving the trackers to buy early also the property portfolio and some time down the road a possible bid by the likes of DT must also be in play.

The strike? Who cares if my junk post, final demands and speeding tickets arrive a little later!

Fred1new - 19 Oct 2013 12:09 - 190 of 320

Hal.

Let them float away on the breeze.

---------

Martini,

I have a gut feeling that the price will drop over next few months.

May revisit when all the shouting has settled.

Also, have bet that market will drop on Monday.

But it was a nice little earner.

----

But the government miss-priced it IPO.

It was a Balls up.

cynic - 19 Oct 2013 17:19 - 191 of 320

fred screeching from the roof top as usual, but there have been a couple of interesting articles in the last few days re this pricing issue ..... fred should go away and read them before being so predictably, and not necessarily accurately judgmental

fred - as you are so often keen on saying, DYOR!

Fred1new - 19 Oct 2013 17:37 - 192 of 320

Manuel,

I can see that you are blinded by allegiance to your conning leaders. (Or, maybe, something else.)

The tories are incompetent and yet they tell you they are the party for business.

I wonder what was sold to the Chinese.

Bye the way have a look at below and DYOH about their Chinese management techniques in these areas.

Mind the sums are small compared with the their probable cost of colonisation of London especially and in England.

dreamcatcher - 19 Oct 2013 17:37 - 193 of 320

Far from a balls up as you say Fred . If the shares were £10 you would have blamed DC or someone in the government. DC tried to increase the offer price but the institutions objected and would not have it.

Fred1new - 19 Oct 2013 17:53 - 194 of 320

Nightmare.

No, wouldn't have bought them.

And I don't think it should have been sold.

Bugger the city, you may enjoy it.

The coalition is trying to bluster itself out of its mistakes with a blister defence.

I fed up with "denationalised" and "private industry" being cap in hand and bleating to the government to be bailed out when the have scraped the barrel and paying themselves exorbitant "management fees" and failing at what they are said to be good at.

There is a large group off people paying for the incompetence of this government and a small group profiting by their policies.

Also, fed up with this government providing larger and larger troughs to its friends and bleating on about inherited woes.

To have a bloody minded cantankerous minister cost a the country £500000, when anybody in their right mind would have realised he had overstepped the mark and apologise, with the probability that both sides would have laughed and the incident forgotten, shows the arrogance of the present administration and its dissociation with the public.

dreamcatcher - 19 Oct 2013 18:41 - 195 of 320

Well it could not carry on in the state it was in. Where was the injected investment badly needed going to come from ? China lol .It will be will have to stand on its own two feet now and investors will invest if the management turn it around.

Fred1new - 19 Oct 2013 20:21 - 196 of 320

Nightmares,

Bullshit.

Firstly, I think the company was and had turned itself around and was/is profitable

Secondly, if the UK can afford and unnecessary aircraft carrier, I am sure that the state it could if wished sort out require upgrading of plant and systems of the Mail to make it an efficient system.

What it needed was better management and probably a more pragmatic work force.

One of the steps to doing that may have been Shareholding by employees with built in selling period restrictions and a consistent approach by management and work force.

dreamcatcher - 19 Oct 2013 20:32 - 197 of 320

Royal Mail's £10bn pension deficit ? lol

Fred1new - 19 Oct 2013 20:38 - 198 of 320

Ps.

It seems to many that Georgie boy and cohorts are doing, is flogging off more of the silver to cover up the increasing UK debt and at the same time is pilfering some of the proceeds for mate in the city.

I can see the same approach is going to happen within the Health Service with of course the beneficial effect of Lansley's costly reorganisation and the effect of The Hunt's magical touch.

dreamcatcher - 19 Oct 2013 20:42 - 199 of 320

On the pension deficit - can you argue with this? Tax payers will pick up the pension deficit.

Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, said it amounted to “nationalising its debts and privatising its profits”.

dreamcatcher - 19 Oct 2013 20:52 - 200 of 320

The past has been far from rosy as I said.

Reported Post Office/Royal Mail Group net profits/losses, 1981-2010

The plunge into losses for 1999-2000 was the result of a £571m write-off on the compromised automation project ('Horizon') for Post Office Counters. The further decline in 2001-2 took account of exceptional losses of £1.1bn at the start of the Three Year Renewal Plan launched in 2002. Private-sector competitors were given legal access to the whole of the UK postal market at the start of 2006.
Reported Post Office net profits losses 1981-2010 (PDF, 55KB)

cynic - 20 Oct 2013 14:31 - 201 of 320

so tell us fred, why don't you emigrate to somewhere more in line with your socialist ideals? ..... i think even you would fing north korea a bit too tough a regime, but perhaps france with its 75% top rate tax regime would suit

Fred1new - 20 Oct 2013 15:37 - 202 of 320

Cynic,

Are you on the bottle, or something stronger?

I don't like living in a thiefdom, whether it is said to be whether is run by those with a “said” allegiance to a "communist" , "fascist", "national front", of the "modern day conservative" party.

Often, as appears to me now, the hierarchy of these parties has an allegiance only to their own selves and those who own them.

This country seems to many to be degenerating under the "present regime" run by Cameron and Osborne, who I would label con artists and appear to be deceiving many of their own followers.

It is leaning the tory farther and farther to the right and it doctrine is becoming more and more divorced from the public, which it is supposed to represent.

You may be to be deluded enough and self centred enough to believe in their policies, that is your right.

By the way, you often chunter on about having the right to and using it to vote for whatever bunch suits, or support your whimsical life, but part of Democracy is not only having the right to vote for the leadership and policy appeals to you, but also the right to criticise and object to the policies and action of a Democratic government.

In some ways, the latter rights are more important than the former.

Now go back to bed and try the other side, if you can get out of it again.

If you are successful in doing this, engage your residual grey matter and think.

But have a nice day!

Fred1new - 20 Oct 2013 15:46 - 203 of 320

Bye the way, in case you have missed.

Is one of these you?

Or is it a case of being a wannabe?

halifax - 20 Oct 2013 16:37 - 204 of 320

Fred bring back Tony Blair all is forgiven?

doodlebug4 - 20 Oct 2013 17:13 - 205 of 320

Or, bring back Gordon Brown who was surely one of our worst Prime Ministers - ever. Horrible guy - at least Blair had an element of charm about him.

More to the point here is that Vince Cable is getting it in the neck now for ignoring some advice he was given about this float.

Fred1new - 20 Oct 2013 17:43 - 206 of 320

I didn't know he was dead.

Horrah!

I think he should be digging graves in Iraq.

===

Gordon Brown, was everybody pet, (other than Blair's) until 2008, and was pleaded with by the now con artists and the city to relax controls on the financial service and city and not to tighten up on the "city".

For many in the 97-2008 they were living the life of Riley, with the cash cows of glorified money lenders.

By the way he may have "allowed" the collapse, but who orchestrated it?

Another thing I would like to see the mess this present mob leaves when it departs and what the debt, deficit and GDP will be.

Interesting to see, but I wouldn't employ the "accountants" they are using at the moment to do the books.

====

I must admit surprised by VC's decision, if it was his to take?

Sloppy!

cynic - 20 Oct 2013 17:53 - 207 of 320

no fred, but i most certainly get very bored indeed with your incessant whinging and whining and griping and grizzling .... that is why i am sure you'ld be much happier living in a staunch socialist country, and then you won't have to put up with the plethora of things that you find so dreadful in this country .... you won't even have to get your snout dirty truffling around for profits for privatisation issues either

Fred1new - 20 Oct 2013 18:23 - 208 of 320

Manuel,

You appear to be becoming more repetitious every time you post.

Early sign of decline.

To lazy to change country, prefer the Utopia of the UK and occasionally enjoying the benefit from the trough, which of course you help to provided me out your Personal Tax.

(You do pay tax, I hope?)

I wonder why you are so apprehensive about socialism, when you are coming to the age when you may benefit from long term, or short term care in the NHS or the Odd Folks Home.

cynic - 20 Oct 2013 18:34 - 209 of 320

at least i repeat with just a few words, whilst your own are incessant and take up (too) much space

i vote for whom i think the least worst, though you prefer to sit in your padded armchair incessantly criticising all and everything but disinclined ever to put vote with mouth ..... once an election is over, i make as good a fist as i can from what is then dealt, whatever its hue

and no, i am more than happy to go on record saying that i am truly delighted that no company i worked for was ever blighted by a union .... this is not to say that unions were not more than necessary when formed, but i have yet to see one now that has much if any interest in the wellbeing of the company who provides the employment ..... i would also thoroughly agree that there is still a dreadful amount of bad and incompetent management, though uk is far from holding anything like the monopoly

Fred1new - 20 Oct 2013 19:33 - 210 of 320

I hope the lesser mortals touch their cap to you!.

=====

I would also suggest having a look at the number of companies who have survived in this economic recession due to management and unions accepting "pay", "hours" and "working practices" restrictions, both sides accepting the need for restraint.

Also, look at some of the bigger companies where relationships, have been good over 50 or more years without strikes. Profits good and working conditions improving and good compared with previous periods.

As written before, one of the changes I would like to see, where it is possible, is for the work force to be part share holders in the companies. If this was so, both sides would be in favour of good working relationships.

This is not feasible in all "industries",or small businesses, but probably similar mode or method of functioning could be found. That might encourage mutual responsibility.

Also, but this repeating myself, my own father ran (as manager) a profitable pit in South Wales for close on 30 years, where relationships, between management and the workforce were good and there was one half day strike during that period.

Other pits were having one strike or walkout a week. My father put it down to lousy management, lousy working conditions and stupidity of union leaders.

The day pick for it was a Xmas day, but repairers and maintenance workers continue to work.

The profits per man were high, and the wages some of the highest in the coal field.

So, I would suggest before you post, check your facts and engage your brain and try to contain some of your wishy washy prejudices.

======

Back to a bloody impossible endgame.

On and off the chess board.

cynic - 20 Oct 2013 19:58 - 211 of 320

and i'm sure a great many more well-managed companies have survived without the russian roulette of any union interference of any kind, and who also have a contented workforce

btw, my own prejudices probably only appear wishy washy in your eyes, as they are not stridently put about as yours are, and or nor do they have your favourite scarlet flag waving above them

goldfinger - 20 Oct 2013 20:07 - 212 of 320

O/Topic....CYNERS one of your favourite stocks just posted on Chart Attack Thread.

Fred1new - 20 Oct 2013 22:18 - 213 of 320

Cynic,

Never marched or walk behind any flag or danced to anybody else's tune icon without thinking about it. Since early teens been considered a free thinking maverick, thanks to being taught to question.

But wonder how many tunes you would dance to if there was a jingle to it?

cynic - 21 Oct 2013 08:42 - 214 of 320

you have clearly thought about and decided the red flag is what you want to follow - so go somewhere where it holds sway!

Fred1new - 21 Oct 2013 09:12 - 215 of 320

Manuel,

When a person thinks that they can read other peoples "minds" it would suggest they are suffering from delusional thinking patterns.

Martini - 21 Oct 2013 09:24 - 216 of 320

Can we take this exchange to the talk to yourself thread please.

RMG opens up another 5%, has it put a top in at 530 or will it continue to have legs?

My £5 guess for a top was blown away.

Fred1new - 21 Oct 2013 09:43 - 217 of 320

Martini,

Did consider transfer and then rejected the idea.

Have noted Mail price. Thought it would drop, but still watching it.

cynic - 21 Oct 2013 10:05 - 218 of 320

fred - 215 - but you clearly think you know mine; how strange and of course totally contradictory

Fred1new - 21 Oct 2013 11:07 - 219 of 320

Check my wording.

cynic - 21 Oct 2013 11:12 - 220 of 320

i have and stand by what i wrote

fred - i do indeed get very cross with you at times, as i am probably meant to, but your actions sometimes betray that you are regularly being merely and intentionally contentious - even if boringly repetitious

Fred1new - 21 Oct 2013 13:34 - 221 of 320

Pardon!!!!!!

cynic - 21 Oct 2013 13:36 - 222 of 320

of course i'll excuse you - just

Fred1new - 21 Oct 2013 13:43 - 223 of 320

Not a pretty picture.

cynic - 21 Oct 2013 13:51 - 224 of 320

given the colour, i guess it's a self-portrait fred

goldfinger - 21 Oct 2013 13:55 - 225 of 320

Now come on chaps their are other interested posters in this stock.

Could you please take it across to Talk To Yourself Thread where it would be more suited and tolerated........just.......LOL.

cynic - 21 Oct 2013 13:58 - 226 of 320

fred doesn't want to lol
he won't admit it, but he's a true capitalist at heart but a red-blooded socialist to his bum :-)

littlebert2 - 22 Oct 2013 10:54 - 227 of 320

I'm guessing from the SP drop and all the 227 trades, those that were forced by Equiniti to take paper certs have gotten them cleared into their nom accounts ;-)

Martini - 23 Oct 2013 18:59 - 228 of 320

New high close. Still lots of 227 trades but being mopped up and at higher prices.

Fred1new - 23 Oct 2013 19:13 - 229 of 320

Manuel.

Always believed in a intertwining of the state and capitalism.

Both needs the restraints of one on the other to have a reasonable balance progressive society.

The balance at the moment does not appear beneficial for long term benefit of all of UK society.

======

Martini,

You are doing well.

Good luck to you.

I am out, but still watching.

But noticed volumes are down and expect it to trade sideways or retreat a little.

I will wait until the dust settles.

Not unhappy with my profit.

I put rewards with a bit more into GKN, on Manuel "tip".

cynic - 23 Oct 2013 20:22 - 230 of 320

long term benefit of all of UK society
in your opinion, with which all may not agree, when was that ever so?

Fred1new - 23 Oct 2013 20:33 - 231 of 320

Seemingly so, Atlee period, McMillan period and many other periods when the balance was tilted to the majority and not the "few".

Read your history of social reforms.

Stan - 23 Oct 2013 21:03 - 232 of 320

Fred, Alf hasn't got time to read anything Cos' he's always on here... when he's supposed to be working.

cynic - 23 Oct 2013 22:01 - 233 of 320

ah yes
you've never had it so good
the pound in your pocket
etc etc

the wind of change does not seem to have brought much peace, joy and prosperity to africa either

btw, check out the advantages of "retiring" but being retained on a long term consultancy :-)

Stan - 23 Oct 2013 22:36 - 234 of 320

Retire? What you ha! before you can retire who must have worked and I see little evidence of that me old china, also consulting who, about what? And just how long is long term?

These are the sort of questions we need answers to... and we need to know now -);

cynic - 24 Oct 2013 08:20 - 235 of 320

there's now 4 years of the consultancy left, renewable thereafter

and your next Q?

Stan - 24 Oct 2013 08:25 - 236 of 320

I asked 4 questions and you have only answered 1... So 3 to go please? -):

cynic - 24 Oct 2013 08:46 - 237 of 320

234 is one Q; i do not see 3 others, though i'm not greatly interested anyway

Stan - 24 Oct 2013 09:16 - 238 of 320

Out now, But I will deal with you later... Meanwhile you have work to do.

cynic - 24 Oct 2013 10:17 - 239 of 320

i can scarcely wait .... indeed, am almost wetting myself in anticipation

Fred1new - 24 Oct 2013 11:13 - 240 of 320

Weren't you one of Maggie's wets.

cynic - 24 Oct 2013 11:16 - 241 of 320

no, just one of her "vegetables" :-)

Stan - 24 Oct 2013 12:54 - 242 of 320

I hope that you have managed to dry up... Now how about answering those outstanding Questions?

cynic - 24 Oct 2013 17:38 - 243 of 320

what questions and even if reiterated, i may just tell you to myob, which is prob what they warrant :-)

Stan - 24 Oct 2013 17:53 - 244 of 320

Oh so you have finally emerged from your 3 hour liquid lunch break have you, myob?... What the hell does that mean then -):

cynic - 24 Oct 2013 19:01 - 245 of 320

Mind Your Own Business :-)

doodlebug4 - 24 Oct 2013 21:19 - 246 of 320

Terry Macalister

The Guardian, Thursday 24 October 2013 19.37 BST

One of the world's largest investment banks told ministers ahead of the Royal Mail flotation that they could sell the postal business for £10bn, around two and a half times more than the government finally received for it.

News of the valuation from JP Morgan re-ignited the huge row over the privatisation with Billy Hayes, the postal workers union leader, claiming a "conspiracy against the taxpayer" and demanding the sacking of Vince Cable as business secretary.
The government sold shares in Royal Mail for 330p each, valuing the business at £3.3bn on 11 October. But the shares rocketed in value by almost 40% that day alone and closed at 529p, making the company worth more than £5bn.

The official float figure excluded around £800m of debt, which included would give the state-owned business an "enterprise value" of £4.1bn but still almost £6bn lower than the price tag suggested by JP Morgan.

The US bank declined to comment but well-placed sources confirmed the figure of £10bn and made clear that others pitching to sell the Royal Mail on behalf of the government had also priced the mail company as high as £7bn.

The Department of Business said a whole range of different price tags had been put on Royal Mail at different stages of the sell-off process which was conducted in the most thorough way. "The banks' proposals came months before any threat of strike action by the unions, financial market uncertainty in the United States and other factors which the government has already said were taken into consideration in setting a price for the company in September," said a spokesman.

Hayes, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: "On the opening day of the flotation Vince Cable wrote off the undervaluation as froth. A week later, we were told it was the fault of the CWU. We now have a prima facie case of a conspiracy against the UK taxpayer who were opposed to the sale and have now been robbed of billions. In any other walk of life this would be a sacking offence and we call on Vince Cable to resign. A full inquiry should be launched into the mis-handling of this unnecessary privatisation by Vince Cable. We would also like the matter to be referred to the public accounts committee to scrutinise how badly the taxpayer has been left out of pocket.

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said the development only added to fears that taxpayers have been significantly "short-changed by David Cameron's Royal Mail fire sale".

He added: "Vince Cable has said that taxpayer value was 'central' to the government's strategy in selling Royal Mail but given the extensive consultation with institutional investors and banks which took place, both he and the prime minister have serious questions to answer.

"Crucially, they must explain when the Government was made aware that the sale was so massively oversubscribed by major investors and why, having considered a higher price, they rejected that option.

"We have called for a full investigation into this matter so it is welcome that the National Audit Office has announced it will be looking into the deal and publishing its findings in the Spring."But Whitehall sources said it was not surprising that banks pitching for business might overplay the value of Royal Mail in the hope that they would win the work. They said it was like an estate agent coming round to have a look at a house and trying to persuade the owners to hire them by offering the best price available, but without the full knowledge at that point of all the circumstances.

Over 21 investment banks offered their services in May and their appointment was overseen by another City institution, Lazard. The spokesman for the Department of Business added yesterday: "The proposals included indicative valuations of the company based, in many instances, solely on information already in the public domain. Banks made their own assumptions of Royal Mail's future performance. The range was wide with the median around £3.6bn taking into account [an] IPO [initial public offering] discount." Among the banks that did win the work were Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Stan - 24 Oct 2013 21:39 - 247 of 320

Oh charmed I'm sure! Bang goes your Christmas card this year then... But there again as your jewish I don't suppose that makes one iota of difference -):

Fred1new - 24 Oct 2013 21:40 - 248 of 320

Stan.

Sometimes I think you are referring to his breakfast!

9-)

Fred1new - 24 Oct 2013 21:42 - 249 of 320

Let's stop this.

I want see how Martini gets on, before Manuel rubs it in.

doodlebug4 - 25 Oct 2013 11:44 - 250 of 320

ALEX BRUMMER: Poorly executed and wrongly priced...The betrayal of the Royal Mail flotation

By Alex Brummer

PUBLISHED:22:19, 24 October 2013| UPDATED:22:19, 24 October 2013

With the exception of the most recidivist of trades unions no one could dispute that it was right to free Royal Mail from its sheltered life in state ownership.

What is indisputable is that this was a flotation that has been poorly executed, wrongly priced and has done nothing to encourage wider or longer-term ownership of shares in Britain as recommended by the 2012 Kay Review.

Much of the blame for this farrago is aimed at Vince Cable, who as Secretary of State is ultimately responsible. But much of the early preparations, including meetings with advisers, was done by Tory Michael Fallon who was charged with bringing some private sector skills into the Business department.

The taxpayer has received a terrible deal. Shares floated at £3.30 each have now leapt two pounds to £5.29p. The Government had fair warning of this from some of the investment banks, with JPMorgan valuing the company at up to £9.95billion, Citibank placing a £7.3billion value on the enterprise and Deutsche up to £6.9billion.

Clearly, the Government didn’t want a flop on its hands and allowed the offer to be ‘priced to go’. But the misjudgement was huge.

Several fundamental errors have been made. First, the retail offer was not meant to be a national lottery-style get-rich-quick scheme, but to encourage broader share ownership. This it has failed to do, with punters immediately cashing in.

Second, it should have been aimed at long-term British-based funds. It was not beyond the brainpower of the global bookrunners to have devised a system that gave these holders preference.
Instead, the big winners have turned out to be aggressive hedge funds, including TCI with an eye-catching 5.8 per cent stake.

Finally, ahead of the float Cable, Fallon and others insisted there was no need for a ‘golden share’ that ensured the Royal Mail remained British because it would be hanging on to a minority stake currently 38 per cent. This, it was argued, would act as a bulwark against overseas owners. But for how long given that the Government is committed to running down its stake?

The consequences of allowing strategic assets, from oil refineries at Grangemouth to nuclear engineer Westinghouse and British Energy to be sold abroad, has been seen in its full glory this week. It leaves government on the outside with little leverage over essential services.

It may be too late to impose a golden share on Royal Mail that could prevent the European parcels service GLS from being carved out of the enterprise by TCI and others.

But Cable should make clear that if that is attempted the matter will be referred immediately to the Office of Fair Trading/Competition Commission for a thorough study of its strategic and economic impact.

ExecLine - 25 Oct 2013 15:20 - 251 of 320

£5.50 or thereabouts as I type.

Oodafortit?

Martini - 28 Oct 2013 09:38 - 252 of 320

Sold out all my shares at 564. It will probably surge on to to £6 now but happy with the profit. More of these please Vince.

Fred1new - 28 Oct 2013 16:56 - 253 of 320

Martini.

Lend us a bob or two.

Difficult to call.

skinny - 20 Nov 2013 09:15 - 254 of 320

Barclays Capital Equal weight 538.50 - 466.00 Initiates/Starts

Stan - 20 Nov 2013 16:28 - 255 of 320

UBS has told clients to 'sell' their shares in Royal Mail, saying the postal service is now over-valued.

The investment bank, which was one of the lead bookrunners on the £3.3bn privatisation of Royal Mail last month, said the market was far too optimistic about the company’s prospects.

skinny - 22 Nov 2013 11:45 - 256 of 320

Nomura Neutral 538.50 - 400.00 Initiates/Starts

skinny - 27 Nov 2013 07:04 - 257 of 320

Half Yearly Report

Key points
· Revenue growth of two per cent was driven by strong growth in parcel revenue in UKPIL and GLS, which offset letter revenue decline. Parcel revenue now accounts for 51 per cent of Group revenue.
· Operating costs after transformation costs were flat, due to tight cost control and lower transformation costs. Transformation costs were lower than expected, in part due to delays in transformation expenditure related to the industrial relations situation. Transformation costs are now expected to be approximately £160 million for the full year.
· Operating profit after transformation costs of £283 million benefitted from a one-off VAT credit of £35 million, lower depreciation and amortisation of £10 million, as well as £50 million lower transformation costs.
· While the improved Group operating profit margin after transformation costs reflects continued tight cost control, the VAT credit and lower depreciation and amortisation benefitted margins by approximately one percentage point.
· Profit before taxation of £233 million and notional earnings per share of 16.8 pence (both excluding specific items) reflect the operating performance of the Group. Pension accounting standards require us to include a one-time, non-cash benefit of £1,350 million4 as a result of the Pensions Reform in reported profit before taxation and reported notional earnings per share.
· EBITDA before transformation costs increased to £483 million.
· Net debt of £723 million was £183 million lower than at 31 March 2013. On 15 October 2013, Royal Mail refinanced and replaced all loans previously provided by HM Government. These loans5 and existing finance leases are currently forecast to have a blended interest rate of approximately 3.5 per cent per annum over the life of the facilities.

Bullshare - 27 Nov 2013 13:54 - 258 of 320

The market seems to like the new numbers !!

black bird - 28 Nov 2013 09:45 - 259 of 320

goldmansachs said float 6bn short making s/p @ £ 9

goldfinger - 28 Mar 2014 08:18 - 260 of 320

28 Mar 2014 Royal Mail Plc RMG RBC Capital Markets Outperform 596.50 564.00 625.00 650.00 Upgrades

UPGRADES to SP TARGET of 650p

HARRYCAT - 28 Mar 2014 08:27 - 261 of 320

goldfinger - 28 Mar 2014 08:33 - 262 of 320

From City Wire 27/03/2014.......

Royal Mail still a buy after redundancy news
News of 1,300 redundancies has not dampened Shore Capital’s enthusiasm for Royal Mail (RMG.L) as it maintained its ‘buy’ recommendation.

Robin Speakman said the redundancies, which fall under the group’s efficiency programme, will not make a significant change to his forecasts.

‘An addition of around £100 million cost is to be taken in the current year to March 2014, resulting in total transformation costs this year of approximately £230 million; annual cost savings are put at around £50 million post full year 2015, with approximately £25 million achievable next year,’ he said. ‘This goes some way to ameliorating additional pension costs of around £75 million per annum from next year.’

He added that the staff leaving were ‘mid-tier management and back office support’ rather than front line staff.

‘We believe that the context of these additional redundancies should be noted, being amongst a total UK core network of some 140,000 staff and against a competitive background, and a long term pay agreement with the Communications Workers Union. We do not expect to make any significant changes to our forecast from this news and retain a “buy” stance.’

Photo 2 of 6

goldfinger - 28 Mar 2014 14:42 - 263 of 320

Royal Mail upgraded by RBC Capital
28th March 2014, 08:34

Equity research analysts at RBC Capital Markets have upgraded their recommendation on Royal Mail Group [LON:RMG] to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’ but stated that investors need to be selective in terms of timing.

The broker pointed out that the shares currently trade at a 25 per cent discount, on a PER basis, to sector peers and has increased its price target to 650 pence per share (previously 625 pence), suggesting around 18 per cent potential upside at current levels.

The broker said: “We see RMG shares becalmed by short-term adverse EPS momentum and investor concern about the overhang from the 29.8% UK Government stake that potentially comes out of lockup in April.

“Following placing discounts for Lloyds (UK Government sale in March, 2014), and discounted offerings in the sector that have offered entry opportunities (bpost, TNT Express in H2-2013), we see investors now waiting to exploit this potential.”

goldfinger - 04 Apr 2014 08:32 - 264 of 320

04 Apr 2014 Royal Mail Plc RMG Deutsche Bank Hold 552.00 550.50 - 587.00 Initiates/Starts

SP TARGET 587p

skinny - 13 May 2014 06:34 - 265 of 320

Berenberg Buy 560.00 560.00 - 700.00 Initiates/Starts

skinny - 21 May 2014 06:14 - 266 of 320

Royal Mail to pilot Sunday service for parcel deliveries

skinny - 21 May 2014 06:15 - 267 of 320

Royal Mail to pilot Sunday service for parcel deliveries

Final results tomorrow - Thursday 22nd.

skinny - 22 May 2014 07:02 - 268 of 320

Preliminary Results

Revenue and volume

· Group revenue increased by two per cent, due to parcel revenue growth in both UKPIL and GLS. Parcels are the largest contributor to Group revenue, accounting for 51 per cent.
· UKPIL revenue was £7,787 million, up two per cent. UKPIL parcel revenue increased by seven per cent. As expected, parcel volumes (1,068 million items) were flat compared with 2012-13.
· UKPIL letter revenue (including marketing mail) declined to £4,625 million, a two per cent reduction. The four per cent decline in addressed letter volumes for the full year was at the better end of our forecast range of four to six per cent per annum. Marketing mail revenue, part of letter revenue, was £1,111 million.
· GLS revenue was £1,651 million, up seven per cent. Volumes increased six per cent, with growth in both domestic and international volumes.

Profit and margins
· Group operating profit before transformation costs grew to £671 million.
· Transformation costs of £241 million for the year include a provision of £104 million in relation to the management reorganisation programme, announced on 25 March 2014, which will be implemented in 2014-15.
· Group operating profit after transformation costs increased to £430 million. The operating profit margin reduced from 4.4 per cent to 4.2 per cent, as a result of the provision for the management reorganisation programme.
· UKPIL generated operating profit after transformation costs of £309 million. The operating profit margin decreased from 3.9 per cent to 3.5 per cent, again as a result of the provision for the management reorganisation programme.
· GLS operating profit was £108 million. The operating profit margin decreased from 6.7 per cent to 6.5 per cent due to the full year effect of further increases in sub-contractor rates in Germany.
· Profit before taxation (excluding specific items) of £363 million reflects the trading performance of the Group. Accounting standards require us to include a one-time, non-cash benefit of £1,350 million as a result of the Pensions Reform in reported profit before taxation and reported notional earnings per share.

Notional earnings per share (EPS)
· Notional EPS excluding specific items was 26.3 pence.
Cash flow and balance sheet
· EBITDA before transformation costs grew to £942 million, due to improved trading performance.
· Net cash investment of £581 million represents £617 million investment after cash from asset disposals of £36 million.
· Free cash flow increased to £398 million. This has driven a reduction in net debt to £555 million.

Dividends
· As previously indicated, the Board has recommended a final dividend of 13.3 pence per share, subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting, to be held on 24 July 2014.

Transformation and cost control
· Collections, processing and delivery productivity improved by 1.7 per cent, as we reduced the number of frontline hours at a faster rate than the reduction in the level of workload.
· Eight Mail Centres closed this financial year, taking the total number of Mail Centres remaining to 40. We have completed or commenced modernisation in 94 per cent of our Delivery Offices.
· Tight cost control meant non-people costs in UKPIL reduced by three per cent.

Regulation
· The Ofcom investigation into changes to access5 pricing puts this commercial response to changing market conditions on hold.
· Based on our estimates of the impact of TNT Post UK's publicly-stated plans, direct delivery could reduce Royal Mail revenue by over £200 million in 2017-18. See regulation section of Chief Executive's Review for more information.
· With our proposed access price changes suspended and unfettered direct delivery rollout, there is a reasonable prospect that Ofcom's indicative EBIT margin range of between five and ten per cent for Royal Mail's reported business may never sustainably be achieved.
· We are preparing a regulatory submission calling on Ofcom to take action now and carry out a full review of direct delivery.

Summary outlook
· We are facing increasing challenges in the parcels and letters markets in the UK. However, our key value drivers of single digit revenue growth, margin expansion and underlying free cash flow growth remain the objectives for the Group for 2014-15.
· The Board's intention remains to pursue a progressive dividend policy, having regard to the normalised earnings progression of the Group.

skinny - 23 May 2014 10:48 - 269 of 320

Take your pick - double take on Barclays..

Barclays Capital Equal weight 516.00 - 925.00 Reiterates

Barclays Capital Equal weight 516.00 - - Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 516.00 560.00 505.00 Retains

Credit Suisse Underperform 516.00 460.00 460.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 516.00 765.00 765.00 Reiterates

Beaufort Securities Hold 516.00 - - Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Hold 516.00 587.00 587.00 Initiates/Starts

Citigroup Neutral 516.00 531.00 531.00 Upgrades

Berenberg Buy 513.75 519.00 700.00 700.00 Reiterates

HARRYCAT - 24 Jun 2014 10:47 - 270 of 320

Ex divi wed 2nd July 2014 (13.3p)

HARRYCAT - 05 Aug 2014 13:41 - 271 of 320

Credit Suisse note today:
"TP cut to 360p, no near term positive catalysts: We now model a 30pbs margin improvement for 2015E, down from 100bps and against RMG guidance of 50bps. We cut our 2015-16-17E EPS by 16%-17%-14% respectively and see consensus as too high. We sit 15% below a 2015E EBIT consensus of £495m (BBG) for 2015E.
Weak parcels compounding the competitive threat in mail: We see risk to 2015 guidance premised on (i) overcapacity in the UK parcels market which we think will take time to adjust, impacting volumes and pricing; (ii) FX headwinds persisting in 2Q (at least) driving continued weakness in international parcels; (iii) a further 20bps YoY margin contraction at GLS from sustained cost pressures (France/Germany), additional capacity (Germany) and tougher revenue comps (Italy); (iv) well flagged competitive pressures in mail from TNT Post UK which have yet to materialise and; (v) high fixed costs and a heavily unionised workforce which limit cost saving initiatives that may be needed in a lower revenue environment this year. Crucially, pressures in the parcels market increases the risk that mail volume declines will not be offset requiring potentially deeper restructuring initiatives.
These would have clear near term cash implications from additional Transformation costs. Our bear case scenario outlined in this note generates a FV of 270p.
Valuation: Our TP of 360p is based on a blend of our DCF (350p), SOTP (360p) and multiples analysis (370p). RMG trades on a 2015E EV/EBITDA of 6.6x for a 6.3% FCF yield representing a 5% and 11% discount to peers for a stock with materially more risk to cash flows in our view."

cynic - 05 Aug 2014 13:51 - 272 of 320

not looking so underpriced now is it, after all the blather and hullaballoo at launch

goldfinger - 05 Aug 2014 14:43 - 273 of 320

Thats because Camorons mates and spivs have cashed in.

cynic - 05 Aug 2014 14:50 - 274 of 320

any more crappy excuses from your quarter?
it's called making the theory fit the facts :-)

Claret Dragon - 05 Aug 2014 14:59 - 275 of 320

I am getting interested in this one again after the carpet bagging.

HARRYCAT - 01 Oct 2014 12:05 - 276 of 320

UBS note today:
"Last week, we had negative trading statements from both TNT Express and UK Mail. Although it is dangerous to extrapolate too much, the commentary on weak UK parcel volumes (UK Mail) and adverse pan-European trading (TNT Express) are clearly not positive for Royal Mail. Due to this we have cut RMG’s UK parcel FY2014 volume growth forecast from 2.5% to 2%, implying 1% growth in H1, followed by 3% in H2. GLS performance likely to be less impacted.
We have also reassessed GLS’s performance given the newsflow but the largest change has been to the rate we translate euro earnings, given recent moves. We now assume € per £ of 1.26 this year and 1.27 thereafter. We believe that flat EBIT margins at GLS are perhaps a better reflection of the kind of performance we can expect in the current economic environment in continental Europe.
A lot of challenges face Royal Mail but share price is largely discounting this RMG faces a number of challenges, including modernising its network, managing the decline in letter mail volumes, the threat from competition in both letter and parcel, as well as dealing with a highly fixed cost base. We believe RMG faces particular issues with having a highly unionised, relatively well paid workforce at a time when its revenue visibility is low and when both the letter and parcel markets are undergoing significant change. Having said all this we believe the poor share price performance and valuation largely reflect the fact these negatives are known by the market.
Valuation: EPS estimates cut by 6-8%; Rating raised to Neutral, PT cut to 400p. We have cut our EPS estimates by 6-8% going forward, given the weakness in UK parcel as well as updated FX forecasts. We note that our underlying improvement in margins is now 5pp, in-line with company guidance. RMG trades on 5.3x CY2015 EBITDA, 12.3x P/E versus peers on 3-8x and 7-16x. However, we regard RMG as more of a work in progress than the likes of Austrian Post, bpost, and Deutsche Post. We have cut our DCF-based price target to 400p."

cynic - 01 Oct 2014 13:48 - 277 of 320

so this was floated at about 330 from memory, and then there was a massive ballyhoo that it had been disgustingly underpriced
12 months later, reality has set in and the price is barely 400, what do we hear?
was that a deafening silence?

HARRYCAT - 14 Oct 2014 14:24 - 278 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail says contracts have been exchanged for the sale of its former Paddington mail centre site at London Street, W2 to Great Western Developments for £111m in cash.

The one-acre site is next to the Paddington main line railway station in central West London. It is part of Royal Mail's 'London Development Portfolio', which comprises surplus sites Royal Mail has identified for potential sale or redevelopment in London. Royal Mail vacated the Paddington site in 2008 and operations relocated to Mount Pleasant.

Great Western Developments is owned by Hotel Properties, a listed Singaporean hotels and real estate company, which has a 70% ultimate shareholding, and Anchorage View Pte Limited, which has a 30% shareholding, both via a joint venture holding company.

In November 2012 Westminster City Council resolved to grant planning permission2 for Royal Mail's mixed use scheme on the site. The purchaser intends to seek further planning permission which, if granted, will require the purchaser to pay a further £20m to Royal Mail Group Limited. In addition, if the purchaser sells the site within two years of completion, it has agreed to pay Royal Mail Group Limited 50% of any net sale proceeds above the £111m purchase price if sold within the first year and 25 per cent if sold within the second year.

A 10% non-refundable deposit of £11.1m is payable upon exchange of contracts. The remaining proceeds will be payable upon completion, which is expected to take place on 8 December 2014. Net cash proceeds of the sale of around £108 million will be used for general corporate purposes. The site had a net book value at 30 March 2014 of £1.6m. The net book value reflects the purchase of the land over a number of years, beginning in 1889, subsequent building and development and Royal Mail's policy of depreciating freehold properties over a period of up to 50 years. In addition, around £30m has been invested in buying, building and fitting out the site over the years.

Royal Mail group property director Martin Gafsen said: "Royal Mail continues to seek to optimise value from sites no longer required for operational use and will consider all options as to the manner in which this is achieved."

HARRYCAT - 14 Oct 2014 14:27 - 279 of 320

"......Royal Mail's policy of depreciating freehold properties over a period of up to 50 years"
How the hell does that work?????? ...In Central London?????

cynic - 14 Oct 2014 14:29 - 280 of 320

how can auditors even accept that sort of rubbish?

skinny - 14 Oct 2014 14:29 - 281 of 320

Are you still holding Harry?

HARRYCAT - 14 Oct 2014 14:31 - 282 of 320

No. I have never held this stock , but only because I didn't have spare cash at the time of float.

skinny - 14 Oct 2014 14:36 - 283 of 320

I had it at float and sold too quickly - its starting to look interesting again?

skinny - 15 Oct 2014 11:41 - 284 of 320

Blast!

goldfinger - 07 Nov 2014 10:37 - 285 of 320

RMG

Goldman sachs note today..........

Royal Mail is among the leading risers, up 12.3p at 464.6p after Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a buy recommendation and 575p price target. The bank said:

We believe Royal Mail should benefit from margin improvements, as the restructuring gathers pace, and from the potential disposal of the London real estate (which we value at 80p a share).

Despite its relatively weak positioning, owing to high competition in both parcels and mail, we believe Royal Mail offers significant earnings growth potential, as it strives to increase its efficiency levels and continues to grow in parcels. While the parcels market remains competitive in the UK, Royal Mail has been able to increase its market share from 35% in 2011 to 38% in 2013.

On the other hand, its staff costs represent 60% of the total costs, compared to 45%, on average, for the other postals under our coverage; bringing this down to the average cost of the other postals could result in as much as £1.3bn of savings. With 31% of the employees over 30 years old, we believe that natural attrition, in addition to specific efficiency plans, will help to reduce costs and gradually bring Royal Mail margins within the lower end of the regulatory range of 5-10%, from 4.5% in 2014. We forecast earnings before interest and tax margins to improve to 6.0% by 2017 and 6.9% by 2019, and we expect Royal Mail to be able to deliver 8.7% EBITDA and 16% earnings growth over 2014-2017.

cynic - 07 Nov 2014 16:02 - 286 of 320

long way out (away) these forecasts - 2014/19 - and goodness knows what might happen in the meantime

you can bet your bottom $ that the unions, rightly or wrongly, will fight tooth and nail to keep what very much looks like heavy over-staffing

goldfinger - 07 Nov 2014 16:06 - 287 of 320

ohhhhhhhhhh SHUT UP............and get some bought.

If you had done when I flagged them up this morning youd already be in profit.

Stan - 07 Nov 2014 16:13 - 288 of 320

Oh really Alf.. your so yesterday.

Chris Carson - 07 Nov 2014 16:15 - 289 of 320

When I flagged them up this morning LOL LOL

Mr 90% has spoken!

Do we have an entry price?

Is it a spread bet(rolling or quarterly) or shares bought?

Target?

Stop Loss?

Flake!!!!!!

goldfinger - 07 Nov 2014 16:19 - 290 of 320

Carson, I cant see what you are saying as I have you filtered. No doubht as usual its directed at me.

Are you going out with the BOYS tonight?.

Chris Carson - 07 Nov 2014 16:20 - 291 of 320

Who are you kidding FLAKE!

cynic - 07 Nov 2014 16:22 - 292 of 320

haven't been buying at all today .... confess i had expected dow to dump, but it hasn't done so

HARRYCAT - 19 Nov 2014 08:06 - 293 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail Group's H1 pretax profit plunged to £167m, from a year-ago profit of £1.58bn. Revenue was £4.5bn, broadly unchanged on the year. It proposed an interim dividend of 6.7p a share,

CEO Moya Greene was pleased with the overall performance.

"We have delivered two per cent revenue growth together with margin expansion, in line with our expectations. Our tight cost control meant that UK costs were flat on an underlying basis and we are expecting a similar performance for the full year," she said in the results statement.

"Looking further ahead, we are targeting a flat or better underlying UKPIL cost performance in 2015-16.

"The UK parcels market remains challenging. As the pre-eminent UK parcels delivery company, we are targeting a number of new, growing areas, and delivered two per cent volume growth in a competitive market.

"We had a better than expected performance in UK letters. GLS, our European parcels business, demonstrated a strong performance with better than expected volumes in domestic and export parcels.

"Our performance remains in line with our expectations for the full year. But, as always, this depends on us delivering another great Christmas, for which we are fully prepared."

Revenue and volume highlights:

· We delivered revenue growth of two per cent, in line with our expectations.

· UKPIL revenue was flat at £3,703 million. Letter revenue of £2,242 million was up one per cent, primarily due to election mailings. Addressed letter volumes decreased by three per cent3. This was better than our expected range of a 4-6 per cent decline per annum3, mainly due to the improvement in UK economic conditions.

· At £1,461 million, UKPIL parcel revenue was down one per cent. This was primarily due to the impact of a change in the mix of the parcels we carry and the highly competitive environment in the UK parcels market. We estimate Amazon's own delivery network will reduce the annual rate of growth in the UK addressable market4 to 1-2 per cent5 for approximately two years. UKPIL parcel volume grew by two per cent.

· GLS delivered a good performance, ahead of our expectations. Revenue was up seven per cent, in line with volumes.

Profits and margins highlights:

· Reported Group operating profit before transformation costs was £279 million (H1 2013-14 £353 million). This represents an increase of £13 million on an underlying basis.

· Tight cost control meant that UKPIL operating costs before transformation costs, which included the pay increase for frontline employees, were flat.

· Group operating profit margin before transformation costs increased by 20 basis points to 6.2 per cent.

· Group operating profit margin after transformation costs increased by 70 basis points to 5.1 per cent.

Cash flow and balance sheet highlights:

· In-year trading cash inflow was £69 million (H1 2013-14 £118 million), including the cost of the management reorganisation programme of £39 million.

· In July 2014, we issued a €500 million ten-year Eurobond with a coupon of 2.375%. £350 million of the proceeds were used to pay down short-term debt.

· Net debt increased to £570 million from £555 million at 30 March 2014.

· In October 2014, we announced that contracts have been exchanged for the sale of our former Paddington Mail Centre site for £111 million in cash.

HARRYCAT - 22 Jan 2015 08:12 - 294 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail Group said given its performance over the Christmas period it is confident that the FY outcome will be in line with the company's expectations.

It said group revenue for the nine months to Dec. 28, 2014, was up 1%, while that for UKPIL and UK Parcels was flat.

"We are continuing to bear down on costs and expect that underlying operating costs before transformation costs in UKPIL will be flat for the full year," said CEO Moya Greene in the trading statement.

"Our postmen and women delivered a great service over the busy festive period. Royal Mail delivered one of its highest ever quality of service performances for parcel delivery to our customers over the month.

"This is because we started to plan for Christmas in April, putting investment behind extra sorting capacity with 10 temporary hubs and training around 19,000 extra people. As a result, Royal Mail was able to provide customers with reliability, flexibility and high quality delivery at a competitive price.

"As the UK's biggest parcels carrier we are proud that so many people and businesses the length and breadth of the country trusted us to deliver their Christmas.

"We handled around 120m parcels in the month of December alone, 4% more than last year. Letters performed in line with our expectations, with addressed letter volumes down 3% in the first nine months. GLS, our ground-based European parcels business, continued to perform well."

HARRYCAT - 27 Jan 2015 11:30 - 295 of 320

RBC note today:
"Significant consensus downgrades yet to come.
Our view: We set our rating at Underperform from Sector Perform as, despite the 4.5% DPS yield, we think consensus forecasts for 2015/16 remain too high and do not see Q3 trading as enough to avoid this. Longerterm, this potentially risks the DPS. We see risk in the share price above 400p (based on a flat DPS, peer DPS yield) and see 10% downside.
Key points:
1. PT lowered 5% to 400p as now a (riskier) yield share: We make a ~5% cut in 2015/16E pre-transformation EBIT to £480m (we think consensus sees £600m-£700m). DPS yield could be a support and our 400p PT implies 5% yield - like postal peers - though RMG carries more execution risk.
2. Christmas better but we see sizable consensus downgrades germinating. Q3 Christmas trading was better for Parcel but not enough to save 2015/16E profits in our view. Parcel volumes did improve, up 4-5% YoY in October-November 2014, but slowing into Christmas (+4% YoY). RPC was still down 3%. We think some one-off volume benefits from (resolved) infrastructure problems at Hermes and Yodel helped Q3, and may not repeat in Q4. The larger revenue component of UKPIL (letters) saw revenue worsen to 2% decline in Q3. Thus, we see UKPIL revenues -0.7% YoY for 2014/15 and costs flat (before higher IAS19 charges).
3. We see EBIT pre-transformation retrenching further. Longer term we think UK letter mail prices may (have to) rise (like European peers) to help keep UKPIL margin around 6-7%. At best, this leaves a flat DPS outlook. However, excluding one-off property windfalls (uncertain in amount and timing) by 2016/17E we think equity FCF yield could be as low as 3% - falling from ~8% - under the current outlook.
4. Longer term pension risks elevated - long duration of service left is susceptible to more risks. Low bond yields see immediate risk to the IAS19 charge (non-cash) as the reference index is down by ~50bpts since H1 reporting. However, should the outlook persist into 2018, at that point (with the pension asset exhausted through the £300m pa agreed ‘underpayment’) and without changes to employee benefits, cash payments could jump back to ~£700m pa. Worse, our back-of-envelope estimates suggest present conditions might risk a jump in cash payment to £1bn pa in some bearish scenarios, a level beyond present FCF forecasts.
Downside to 400p which then implies DPS yield in line with median of income yield mail peers. Longer-term, unless profitability growth recovers, RMG can achieve modernization of parcels without a net capex step up (e.g. using property sales to support net cash flow), or avoid longer-term pension cash cost step-ups, there could be DPS downside. Triggers to a higher PT and rating include; rebased down and stabilized 2015/16E consensus; much better Parcel revenue, faster cost cuts, and reduced pension outlook risk (higher bond yields)

skinny - 21 May 2015 07:18 - 296 of 320

Royal Mail plc Full Year Results 2014-15

Group financial performance
· Revenue increased by one per cent. This was due to parcel revenue growth in UKPIL and revenue growth in GLS which was ahead of our expectations.
· In UKPIL, operating costs before transformation costs were down one per cent, better than expected. People costs increased by one per cent and non-people costs reduced by four per cent.
· Tight cost control drove operating profit margin before transformation costs improvement of 40 basis points.
· Free cash inflow increased to £453 million, benefiting from £100 million of net cash flows from the London property portfolio.
· As expected, cumulative net investment for 2013-14 and 2014-15 was £1.2 billion. Total investment increased from £617 million to £658 million.
· Net debt reduced from £555 million to £275 million, mainly due to cash flow generated, offset by dividend payments of £200 million.
· Adjusted earnings per share was 42.8 pence.
· The Board is recommending a final dividend of 14.3 pence per ordinary share. Including the interim dividend of 6.7 pence per ordinary share, this represents a total dividend of 21.0 pence per share for 2014-15, up five per cent over the notional 2013-14 full year dividend of 20.0 pence.
Operating performance
· UKPIL revenue was flat at £7,757 million. A one per cent decline in total letter revenue was offset by parcel revenue growth of one per cent, reflecting the competitive market.
· UKPIL parcel volumes increased by three per cent, with a better performance in the second half. Addressed letter volumes declined by four per cent, at the better end of our forecast range.
· GLS revenue grew to £1,653 million, up seven per cent, with revenue growth in all its markets. Volumes were up eight per cent.
· Collections, processing and delivery productivity in UKPIL improved by 2.5 per cent, within our target range of a 2-3 per cent improvement per annum.
· We have seen a net reduction in the number of employees of over 5,500 this year in UKPIL.
· The management reorganisation programme delivered cost benefits of £42 million. It is now expected to deliver cost savings of around £80 million per annum from 2015-16.
· We have introduced around 30 new projects, including new services, products and promotions to improve our customer offering.
· We exceeded our regulatory Quality of Service target for Second Class mail, with a performance of 98.9 per cent against a target of 98.5 per cent. We met our regulatory target for the delivery of First Class mail, with a performance of 93.0 per cent.
Outlook
· The parcels and letters markets in the UK remain highly competitive.
· Trading is in line with our expectations at this early stage of the financial year.
· Our performance will be weighted to the second half and will be dependent on our important Christmas period.
· We continue to target flat or better UKPIL underlying costs for 2015-16.
· The combined impact of German minimum wage legislation and the disposal of DPD SL could reduce GLS margins by around 50-100 basis points in 2015-16.
· We remain committed to growing dividends.

HARRYCAT - 21 Jul 2015 07:31 - 297 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail Group said its trading environment remains challenging and that it is stepping up the pace of change to drive efficiency, growth and innovation, while maintaining a tight focus on costs.

"In the first three months of our financial year we have seen a continuation of the overall market trends we saw last year," said CEO Moya Greene in a statement.

"We have benefitted from the parcel initiatives that took effect in the second half of last year and a good performance from GLS," Greene said.

In the three months to June 28 group revenue remained flat, while UKPIL revenue was down 2% and that for UK Parcels was up 2%. UK Letters revenue was down 4%, and GLS revenue was up 8%.

"Our outlook for letter and parcel trends and other guidance remain unchanged from that set out in our Financial Report for the full year ended 29 March 2015 issued on 21 May 2015," said Greene.

"In particular, we remain focused on costs and continue to target flat or better UKPIL underlying costs for 2015-16. As in previous years, our performance will be weighted to the second half and will be dependent on our important Christmas period."

deltazero - 21 Jul 2015 09:06 - 298 of 320

poor rns - over priced

deltazero - 21 Jul 2015 09:14 - 299 of 320

panMANURE g just released a 480 target - still too high imo :-))))

deltazero - 21 Jul 2015 09:43 - 300 of 320

nice
21 Jul Davy Research N/A Underperform

HARRYCAT - 02 Dec 2015 16:52 - 301 of 320

Ex-divi tomorrow (7p)

Stan - 21 Jan 2016 07:29 - 302 of 320

Trading Update http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=5197237

Chris Carson - 14 Feb 2016 12:49 - 303 of 320

On watch list, dead cat bounce or whatever, possible trading opportunity support @ 420p relief rally if Indices reflect last Friday going into this week possible target for a bounce 450p.

Chris Carson - 14 Feb 2016 13:42 - 304 of 320

LATEST BROKER VIEWS

Date Broker New target Recomm.
11 Feb JP Morgan... 605.00 Overweight
22 Jan Beaufort... N/A Buy
22 Jan Deutsche Bank 435.00 Hold
22 Jan Barclays... 575.00 Overweight
21 Jan Cantor... 530.00 Buy
21 Jan Panmure Gordon 450.00 Hold
21 Jan Investec 580.00 Buy
21 Jan Liberum Capital 360.00 Sell
21 Jan Credit Suisse 400.00 Underperform
20 Jan Deutsche Bank 435.00 Hold
Broker Recommendations for Royal Mail

Chris Carson - 16 Feb 2016 12:23 - 305 of 320

In profit but needs more volume,

Chris Carson - 17 Feb 2016 09:40 - 306 of 320

Stop to 440p

HARRYCAT - 26 Apr 2016 08:10 - 307 of 320

Credit Suisse today upgrades its investment rating on Royal Mail Plc (LON:RMG) to neutral (from underperform) and raised its price target to 490p (from 400p)

HARRYCAT - 19 May 2016 22:47 - 308 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail has reported slips in both its FY revenue and pretax profit but at the same time nudged its proposed total dividend higher in what it described as a resilient performance in challenging markets.

FY revenue came in at GBP9.25bn, from GBP9.33bn. Pretax profit was GBP267m, from GBP400m, and proposed FY dividend was 22.1p, from 21p.

"We have delivered a resilient performance in challenging markets," said CEO Moya Greene.

"Group revenue was up one per cent and our strategic focus on costs resulted in a one per cent decline in our UK underlying costs. We continue to invest in our transformation and initiatives to support growth.

"Our UK parcel revenue and volumes grew by one per cent and three per cent, respectively. Our addressed letter volumes declined by three per cent; total letter revenue by two per cent.

"GLS, our European parcel business, continued to perform strongly, supporting the overall Group revenue performance.

"We are introducing new and improved products and services and responding quickly to changing customer needs. These measures, alongside our emphasis on customer focus and delivering a value for money service, have helped us to maintain our pre-eminent position in UK letters and parcels and driven growth in GLS."

OUTLOOK:
" Outlook for UK letter and parcel market trends remains unchanged.

" UKPIL cost avoidance programme on track and we expect to avoid a similar level of costs in 2016-17 as the prior year.

" We continue to seek opportunities to drive efficiency, with transformation costs currently expected to be around £160 million in 2016-17.

" Rate of revenue growth in GLS expected to slow in 2016-17.

" We expect total net investment spend to be within £550-600 million per annum in the medium-term.

" We remain focused on in-year trading cash flow, which underpins our commitment to a progressive dividend policy.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
" Revenue was up one per cent, with growth in GLS offsetting the decline in UKPIL revenue.

" Adjusted operating profit before transformation costs was £742 million, up five per cent.

" Adjusted operating profit margin after transformation costs declined by 10 basis points as a result of increased transformation costs due to our cost avoidance and efficiency programme.

" In-year trading cash flow of £254 million reflects increased investment in growth capital expenditure.

" Our strategic focus on costs resulted in a one per cent reduction in underlying UKPIL operating costs before transformation costs.

" Net debt reduced to £224 million due to free cash flow, offset by dividend payments.

" The Board is recommending a final dividend of 15.1 pence per ordinary share giving a total dividend of 22.1 pence per share for 2015-16, up five per cent.

" UKPIL revenue was down one per cent. A one per cent increase in parcel revenue was offset by a two per cent decline in total letter revenue.

" UKPIL parcel volumes were up three per cent, driven by continued growth in import parcels, new contract wins in account parcels and a strong performance in Parcelforce Worldwide. However, revenue reflected a weaker mix due to declines in high average unit revenue (AUR) parcels.

" Addressed letter volumes4 declined by three per cent, better than our forecast range, largely due to the return of direct delivery volumes.

" UKPIL collections, processing and delivery productivity improved by 2.4 per cent, within our target range of a 2.0-3.0 per cent improvement per annum.

" We have seen a net reduction in the number of UKPIL employees of around 3,500 this year.

" We narrowly missed the 93.0 per cent regulatory First Class mail target, with 92.5 per cent of this mail delivered the next working day. We exceeded our regulatory Quality of Service target of 98.5 per cent for Second Class mail.

" GLS continued to perform strongly. Volumes were up 10 per cent. Revenue was up nine per cent, with growth in almost all markets.

Chris Carson - 13 Jan 2017 08:32 - 309 of 320

Reporting next Thursday 19th, may be worth a punt.

HARRYCAT - 01 Mar 2017 10:57 - 310 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Ofcom has determined regulatory intervention is not needed for postal company Royal Mail, meaning it would not impose price controls on its services.

The watchdog would maintain its current regulatory approach for the forthcoming five years.

Royal Mail said in a statement that it was reviewing the Ofcom document and would issue a statement in due course.

Ofcom's review came after Whistl withdrew from the UK in 2015, sparking concerns that Royal Mail no longer faced rivalry in letter delivery.

Stan - 20 Jul 2017 08:05 - 311 of 320

Very greedy Management abuse alert!

Postal workers have reacted angrily to the news that the £1.8 million-a-year chief executive of Royal Mail is to take a part-time job as a non-executive director of Easyjet. Moya Greene has taken up the post at the short-haul airline with immediate effect and will start earning an annual £60,000 for only nine days a year set aside for board meetings. Her £6,666-a-day pay is the equivalent of about three times the annual wage of a Royal Mail delivery worker.

HARRYCAT - 16 Nov 2017 09:39 - 312 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail's pre-tax profit fell by 30% to £77 million in the six months to 24 September, led by a drop in profits in the UK Parcels, International and Letters (UKPIL) division.

The UKPIL arm's revenue was flat at £3.6 million, but operating profit declined from £247 million to £233 million with letter volumes dropping by 3%.

This follows a 2% revenue decline in the UKPIL arm in 2016-17.

The European parcels unit, General Logistics Systems (GLS) saw a 9% increase in revenue, with operating profits growing from £73 million to £90 million, driven by a strong performance in Italy. Volumes grew by 9%.

Overall, the group's revenue edged up by 2% on an underlying basis.

Moya Greene, chief executive officer, said: "Our performance for the full year, as always, will be dependent on the important Christmas period. We are opening six temporary parcel sort centres and recruiting over 20,000 staff. We are also extending opening hours at many of our enquiry offices to help retailers and consumers.

"As previously announced, we are now in external mediation with the CWU. Our priority is to reach agreement with the CWU to help underpin the sustainability of the business."

HARRYCAT - 17 Nov 2017 10:01 - 313 of 320

Jefferies International today reaffirms its underperform investment rating on Royal Mail Plc (LON:RMG) and raised its price target to 330p (from 320p).

HARRYCAT - 19 Jan 2018 10:52 - 314 of 320

Morgan Stanley today reaffirms its underweight investment rating on Royal Mail Plc (LON:RMG) and raised its price target to 410p (from 390p)

HARRYCAT - 17 Jul 2018 09:46 - 315 of 320

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail posted a 1% rise in underlying first-quarter revenue after growing parcel revenue was again offset by weak letter volumes.

The UK parcels and letters business saw sales fall 1%, with parcel revenue up 6% and total letter revenue down 7%.

International logistics business GLS continued to perform strongly, with revenue up 11% on the back of 10% growth in volumes.

'Overall, our trading performance in the first three months of the financial year was in line with our expectations,' Royal Mail said.

It maintained its outlook for addressed letter volume declines of between 4-6% per annum, excluding political parties' election mailings.

Due to the potential impact of new data protection regulations and if business uncertainty persisted, Royal Mail said it still expected to be at the higher end of the range of decline for 2018-19 -- and even may fall outside the range in a period.

In GLS, Royal Mail said it continued to expect a good performance in 2018-19, although margins may be impacted by continuing labour market pressures in many of its markets.

'Our outlook and other guidance are also unchanged from that set out in our financial report for the full year ended 25 March 2018,' the company said.

skinny - 02 Oct 2018 09:19 - 316 of 320

Liberum Capital Sell 363.75 415.00 250.00 Reiterates

Citigroup Neutral 363.75 485.00 - Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Sell 363.75 428.00 300.00 Reiterates

HARRYCAT - 02 Oct 2018 09:49 - 317 of 320

(Reuters) - Shares of Royal Mail (RMG.L) deepened its slump on Tuesday, hitting a record low, a day after the 500-year-old postal service warned annual profit would be far lower than expected, hurt by eroding logistics business margins and weaker letter volumes.

“We have been bearish on the outlook for productivity improvements, but yesterday’s profit warning was shocking in its scale and timing,” Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo said.

The brokerage slashed its target price on the stock to 250 pence from 415 pence and cut full-year earnings estimate by 30 percent and subsequent years by 38 percent.

Credit Suisse slashed its price target on the stock by 111 pence to 450 pence, while Deutsche Bank cut its target to 300 pence from 428 pence on Tuesday.

Although Royal Mail maintained its dividend, analysts warned that the policy did not look sustainable in the longer term."

bonfield - 02 Oct 2018 12:11 - 318 of 320

similar slump this time last year below £4, they hit £6 six months later plus a juicy div.

Trading stock

Buy Buy Buy!!!

Bonfield.

Stan - 15 Nov 2018 08:56 - 319 of 320

Royal Mail reported revenue up 1% but a 25% decline in operating profits for the first half of the year. Chief executive Rico Back said a range of actions had been put in place to improve performance and confirmed the board's commitment to cut £100m of costs and generate adjusted group operating profit before transformation costs of £500-550m for the financial year.

Stan - 29 Jan 2019 08:01 - 320 of 320

Royal Mail tightened up its full-year profit guidance after what it said was a busy Christmas period. The letters and parcels group now expects to deliver adjusted group operating profit before transformation costs of £500-530m, from the £500-550m previously indicated.

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Royal Mail Float - What do you think? (RMG)