National Grid and Utility companies

Ark_Welder

National Grid itself owns large operations in North America that have been bought over the years.

Glen_Clark

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I understand the points made, but while this particular one is a fun headline when you want to moan about current or previous governments, it's not actually true.

Beyond direct corporate buyers, consortia of institutional (and private high-net-worth) investors own utility and infrastructure businesses the world over. And aside from such private funds, many utilities are listed and so ownership of them can be traded between people all across the planet.

I have a bit of First State Global Listed Infrastructure for example, over 40% of its assets are utilities and 88% of its holdings aren't UK listed.

Of course other countries have some utilities privately owned.
But what other country has its power AND water supplies owned by foreign corporations?

grizzly1911

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Of course other countries have some utilities privately owned.
But what other country has its power AND water supplies owned by foreign corporations?

Interesting that the German and French governments are happy to hold our energy companies but our own doesn't care. Same goes for the Chinese and our water. Does the UK government have an interest anywhere?

Perelandra

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

It's all just NOISE

Ha, yes. Since I've no intention of selling any of my CNA shares in the next few years- and indeed will be adding to them through the share schemes- a lower price is good news.

bowlhead99

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Of course other countries have some utilities privately owned.
But what other country has its power AND water supplies owned by foreign corporations?

Fair enough, German water is mostly public owned with only half of Berlin privatised. But public ownership of water businesses is not the norm in e.g. France, Spain, Czech.

If you look at Germany's equivalent of the national grid, it's actually 4 carriers:

- TenneT is owned by the Dutch state and recently announced a partnership with Mitsubishi to help fund connection of offshore wind supplies. Do they have Germany's national best interests at heart?

-50Hz Transmission Gmbh is indirectly owned and run by Elia, the Belgian national grid equivalent, so that's not German either. Over half of it is Euronext listed and a minority of which is owned by a co-op including Belgian municipalities.

-Amprion is I think still 25 % owned by RWE (the mega listed utility business) and the rest of it got bought by Commerz Real, the private equity manager whose fund's investors include various foreign institutions.

-TransnetBW, a smaller part of the grid. It's controlled by EnBW, a listed company which, like RWE, you or I could buy shares in.

Speaking of RWE, a couple of years ago they sold Thyssengas (4000km of German gas pipelines) to funds controlled by Macquarie's infrastructure managers. The sale was intended to open up competition in the gas markets. There was no suggestion that it be de-privatised, quite the opposite. So now it's controlled from Guernsey for the benefit of various institutions who invest in the fund from all over Europe and beyond.

You may have heard of Macquarie's other holdings including our own Thames Water (which they bought from RWE), NCP car parks, Condor Ferries, Brussels and Copenhagen airports, or Wales & West which they owned with foreign co-investors before selling to Cheung Kong last year.

The point is, while national regulation is desirable and not going anywhere, local ownership is not necessary the norm these days whether in utilities specifically or in the global economy generally.

If there were to be a conflict of national interests (eg a private French company owns a UK sewerage plant, but UK goes to war with France), we would just commandeer the plant, and keep on pooping.

Ifts

Perelandra wrote: »

a lower price is good news.

Chairman of National Grid topped up his holding yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 29 May 2013) after recent falls:

https://www.share.com/find-investments/advanced-finder/company-overview/?pass=1&csi=51261&action=news&story_id=20931260

MoneySaverLog

Ifts wrote: »

Chairman of National Grid topped up his holding yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 29 May 2013) after recent falls:

https://www.share.com/find-investments/advanced-finder/company-overview/?pass=1&csi=51261&action=news&story_id=20931260

That's a smart move, buy on the sell off's it's what Buffet will do.

The_pc_tech

Buffet tends to buy when the share hits rock bottom

C_Mababejive

Ifts wrote: »

Chairman of National Grid topped up his holding yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 29 May 2013) after recent falls:

https://www.share.com/find-investments/advanced-finder/company-overview/?pass=1&csi=51261&action=news&story_id=20931260

They lap the cream whilst cutting employee pay and pensions..

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Old mutton chops here already has NG.

But I see this as an opportunity and got some more.

Is that smarter investing?

That said I have a collywobble going on because my two equity income funds have taken a beating since Thursday. Down, down, up and down they have gone.