Royal Mail to sell sorting offices

[Stormproof]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 05754.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royal Mail is planning to raise an estimated £500m by selling up to half its mail sorting centres.

King Sturge, a property agent, has been asked to sell three centres in Warrington, Northampton and Manchester to test the market. It is hoped these will raise around £50m, with 25 to 35 centres in total likely to be sold off over the next 12 months.

Under the sale-and-leaseback arrangement, the centres would be bought and run by property companies, while Royal Mail would rent them back for 20 years. The sales would be one of the last big moves by outgoing chief executive Adam Crozier, whose controversial policies to reform the company have included closing thousands of post office branches and cutting jobs.

Mr Crozier is joining broadcaster ITV as chief executive later this year.

King Sturge declined to comment. Royal Mail did not contradict the story but a spokeswoman insisted: "We are committed to, and investing in, these sites for the long-term and have no plans whatsoever to vacate them."

[baldrick]

RM got a valuation for the Mount Pleasant site last year.

[Roy Mayall]

Putting our children in hock for the sake of Crozier's bonus. What have we become?

[fmrPOSTIE]

Sounds like an extension of a scheme a few years ago...

http://www.news.royalmailgroup.com/arti ... royal_mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DGP1]

It's all about short term gain (very bonus orientated) than any long term strategy, every time you sell off a fixed asset it reduces your balance sheet and will eventually cause a total collapse in the business.

[fishtank]

It's all about short term gain (very bonus orientated) than any long term strategy, every time you sell off a fixed asset it reduces your balance sheet and will eventually cause a total collapse in the business.

Well the cynical amongst us may think that by liquidating the assets of the company and reducing it's net worth you may just make it a little cheaper for a third party to invest in.
And are our collegueshares determined by the net worth of the company,i think they may well be.

[mbavelja]

Is there any way we could organise a community buy-out of the sites in the same way that certain Scottish Islands have been bought and more recently 1700 acres of woodland on the Isle of Bute?
If we owned them surely we could say who is allowed in. (and who is not )

[POSTMAN]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea598c78-1f52 ... ab49a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royal Mail is testing the market for sale-and- leaseback of mail sorting centres by asking King Sturge, a property agent, to sell three centres in Warrington, Northampton and Manchester.

Under the arrangement, the centres would be bought by property companies, potentially raising up to £50m, while Royal Mail would lease them back for 20 years. Officials said suggestions that Royal Mail might extend this to 25-35 centres to raise £500m were speculative.

[Lounge Lizard]

It's what's known as Selling The Family Silver and I blame Twatcher as she started it on a big scale.