Who Actually Owns Scottish and Southern Energy?

mspoppins

Hi,

I've always been about making the right consumer choice (which often means buying local and supporting British companies).

I was under an impression that Scottish and Southern was the last British-owned energy company... until I spoke with this guy who says that SSE was recently bought by a Chinese investor. Considering their shares are freely available on the stock market, it is possible, but I have no way of verifying that. Searched on Google and didn't find anything. Have you, people, heard anything?

molerat

Me, well a little bit anyway. They have not bought my shares nor have I heard of any sell out plans.

macman

How on earth do you define 'British owned' anyway? A company may well be headquartered and pay corporation tax in the UK as does SSE, but it's shareholders could be anywhere.
Do you not consider British Gas to still be in British 'ownership' then?

mspoppins

@molerat, this information actually came from a competitor of SSE, so might be a blatant lie... that's what I'm trying to establish

@macman, isn't British Gas now French or something? It's a vague definition but I basically define a British company as a company that doesn't trickle money outside of the country. it's not a question of where the company is registered. Is the maker of the Black Cab still British? It's registered here, it pays taxes, it provides jobs but the profit is spent elsewhere, benefiting the economy of the "owner's" country. So it's not British...

I thought SSE was a proper British company (in this case I'm referring to the assumption that the dividend from the shares was mainly spent by British residents). This chap tells me that the majority of shares was bought by a Chinese consortium some 12 months ago. I'm surprised that I cannot find anything like that on the internet... guess he's just making it up.

macman

BG is owned by Centrica, a British company.
SSE similarly. It's biggest shareholders are probably various UK pension funds. Doubtless foreign investors (including the Chinese) also have some presence.
Sorry, but your definition of 'British owned' is absurd. Where the shareholders are domiciled has no relevance.

mspoppins

No relevance??? Let's assume there are two companies A and B, both based in Britain.

Company A pays out £1,000,000 in dividends to a foreign investor who spends his million during a wild shopping spree in Shanghai.
Company B pays out £1,000,000 in dividends to a local investor who spends it buying a house in Essex

If you think that both scenarios benefit British economy in a similar way, I'll say I'm genuinely surprised. Don't take offence, but we have lost our industry because of people who don't realise that selling companies to foreign investors eventually leads to losing independence... Where will your grandkids find jobs I wonder? A services based economy in a country of UK's size cannot exist efficiently. We actually need to own companies and manufacture things to get out of the recession.

molerat

10% may be US owned, http://lt.hemscott.com/SSB/tiles/company-data/forecasts-deals/major-shareholders.jsp?epic=SSE&market=LSE
http://capgroup.com/

You cannot guarantee that the dividends of any major multi national corporation wherever they are domiciled are paid or spent in that country. SSE is still a "proper British company" with its headquarters in Perth, Scotland.

Company C pays out £1,000,000 in dividends to ex-pats who spend it on lady boys in Bangkok.

molerat

mspoppins wrote: »

@molerat, this information actually came from a competitor of SSE, so might be a blatant lie... that's what I'm trying to establish

A competitor as in doorstep energy salesman ? If his mouth was moving anything he said about absolutely anything was a lie to get you to sign up

mspoppins

@molerat cheers for the link! I assume then that this American company is the largest shareholder. Otherwise, if the SSE would have been bought out, hemscott would list some sort of company with a 51% share.

"lady boys"? oh how very very dare you

molerat

Company C was just to illustrate that even "real Brits" might not be spending their dividends in the UK

mspoppins

haha, an update. I called the chap's branch manager and she admitted that it was total rubbish and that he'd been telling a lie... lol... I'm tempted to disclose the name of the competitor but I'm not sure whether this is a good idea (ok, ok, I haven't read the forum rules)