Where can one start with these negative myths about share price in 3 or 5 years time and the supposed bad intentions of our employer and government:
* To answer the question about mugs holding on to the shares: Just who do you think are buying these shares at more than 50% over the value - not private investors! They have to be institutional investors, big hedge funds, pensions funds (including the one our pension is invested in), other fund managers and foreign investors looking for a safe return on their money...
*** Furthermore, there were 20 companies hand-picked by the government to invest in most of the shares - the believe is that they will hang on to the shares for the long-term. I believe most of them are doing so otherwise the share price will have fallen if they were all out there taking profit on the back of the high share price rise.
*** The people actually making the killing are private investors with their max £750 shares worth.
The people making the biggest killing are actually Royal Mail staff that had the sense to invest big in their own company.
Royal Mail was undervalued - fact!
The current share price is most unlikely to be sustainable over a long term (3 or 5 years) - not to say it might not be but it will stop rising...
On the issue of the share price plummeting in 3 or 5 years time as predicted by some postie who believe that we are being conned:
Royal Mail is now part of the FTSE Index company. People will continue invest in blue chip companies especially one like RM which is almost a virtual monopoly, it makes decent profit, is in the process of more modernisation and can even get better with private funding. And people will continue to post things with RM - they have the largest network...
The worst case scenario is that Royal Mail will be taken over - then your shares will be bought from you at a decent price...
Just to wrap up (I could go on). Our CEO, managers and even us posties might continue to be rewarded with share options like they do in other private companies. The government is looking to change the rules on the share options to prevent short-termism: so they will not allow employees especially CEO and top managers to cash the share for a while... What this will do is that CEO and other vested interests will not allow their company to go under soon after they have cashed up.
This is all academic, of course. But it is much better than the uninformed myth going around.
* As you can see, even the threat of strike cannot shake the price too much because the underlying value and worth of the company is solid. We should be proud and build on these - after the dispute is over.
Aye, I like a man with principles. looks like a lot of posties have £ signs in their eyse! But they haven't actually go anything in their hands---yet. Just wait until the certificates come through, and see all the obstacles they will be full of.
