Royal Mail shareholder payouts have hit 1billion since sell-off - despite profits slumping by more than third

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Results out today showed the postal giant dished out a record £231million in dividends last year

Royal Mail payouts to shareholders have hit £1billion since it was sold off, despite profits slumping by more than third.

Results out today showed the postal giant dished out a record £231million in dividends last year.


The bulk of the bonanza, equivalent to £630,000 a day, will go to hedge funds and City investors.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, said: “It is scandalous Royal Mail is paying out millions to shareholders despite falling profits.

“This is yet another example of unchecked corporate greed.”


Last year’s dividends take the amount paid to shareholders since the controversial privatisation to around £1billion.

The 2013 sell-off sparked fury, with ministers being accused of off-loading the taxpayers’ stake on the cheap.

Today’s accounts showed revenues topped £10billion last year.

But profits fell by around 37% from £335million to £212million, mainly due to a one-off pension hit.


That did not stop the company upping its annual dividend payout and promising to keep doing so.

It will benefit Royal Mail workers and small shareholders, who own about 20% of the firm, but the vast maj­­ority is controlled by big investors.

Its largest shareholder is fund manager BlackRock, which hired ex-Tory Chancellor George Osborne as a £650,000-a-year adviser. It is in line for a near £13million dividend.

The accounts also showed Royal Mail made £100million from selling off mail centres and delivery offices.


Last year it missed its target of delivering 93% of first-class letters the next day, blaming this on reasons including severe weather.

Ms Long-Bailey said: “Royal Mail was sold off on the cheap. The next Labour government will reverse the privatisation to ensure customers get a better deal.”

Royal Mail said £1.8billion had been invested in the company since privatisation, and the same amount paid into workers’ pensions.

[rambo1]

The divi on rmg really isn't that outstanding in the FTSE 100. Where's the problem paying dividends anyway. Posties will also be benefiting if they weren't silly enough to sell their free shares at the first opportunity. Investing in companies like rmg is where pensions get their income as well as many private investors. What the mirror ( you know, that reputed financial newspaper) fail to mention is the transformation costs involved in making the company more efficient. You gotta speculate to accumulate, that's a big reason the profit is down. They are making out we aren't actually doing very well. Any postie can see that isn't the case. I can get 1.5% from the bank for my savings. With rmg, it's 4% for the divi and as I said, that isn't that high, BP, Shell and Vodaphone all pay out 5-6.5%.

[Spedley]

Transformation costs? I think they were mostly done before it was privatised (e.g. consolidating mail centres new fleet of vans and PDA scanning equipment - that was largely completed just after privatisation.

The point is that in the next couple of years we will be catching with the state the competition was in 10 years ago. The private sector has added nothing to Royal Mail, just drained it's resources paying more in dividends than pensions and profits. And all this is on a cosy little VAT free number sucking 20% from the government coffers.

It was and still is a ridiculous affair.

[BELIAL]

The divi on rmg really isn't that outstanding in the FTSE 100. Where's the problem paying dividends anyway. Posties will also be benefiting if they weren't silly enough to sell their free shares at the first opportunity. Investing in companies like rmg is where pensions get their income as well as many private investors. What the mirror ( you know, that reputed financial newspaper) fail to mention is the transformation costs involved in making the company more efficient. You gotta speculate to accumulate, that's a big reason the profit is down. They are making out we aren't actually doing very well. Any postie can see that isn't the case. I can get 1.5% from the bank for my savings. With rmg, it's 4% for the divi and as I said, that isn't that high, BP, Shell and Vodaphone all pay out 5-6.5%.

[Celgar]

RM isn't as bad as most of the water companies for example which are borrowing money to pay out as dividends. I think a fair percentage of RM dividends are paid effectively from work done unpaid by a lot of Postie's. Waiting to see if AHDC & PDA data will effect change on that front or if RM will selectively use the information and the status quo remains where we are now.