Northern Rock - Shares [Merged Threads]

[Deleted User]

President bush did the same with a oil company he managed, he knew it was going down the tubes, quietly sold his stock while telling the management to hold.

Makes me sick, these people should be locked up for insider trading!

codger

Anyone know what the liability is of directors who continue to run a company knowing that it's insolvent?????

Sapphire

Disgusting that people who destroy companies - at taxpayers' and/or employees expense - can walk away with millions. They should have all their assets taken away from them, and be jailed for what they have done.

Presumably they knew about finance and therefore what the risks of their policies were, but nonetheless put the whole economy at risk purely for their own personal gain? Rather like members of this 'government'.

baby_boomer

Sapphire wrote: »

Disgusting that people who destroy companies - at taxpayers' and/or employees expense - can walk away with millions. They should have all their assets taken away from them, and be jailed for what they have done.

Nonsense. If you tear up contract law like this you create chaos.

And our current standard of living has received a huge boost from the invention of the joint stock / limited liability company in 1844.

You've got to take the rough with the smooth.

Now should bank shareholders look very closely at director bonuses to see if they are aligned with shareholder interests? That's a better approach to pursue and there is much mileage in it.

OverlandLandy

Well NR in a BAD way.....Should I bale out now and keep some £ out of my Investment...or RISK the lot?

From what I'm hearing NR still has assets (limited I agree) and everyone can 'see' their debt/issues. I'm just wondering how many other lenders are in the same position but are not disclosing (Barclays....look like they are doing the drip drip appraoch to leaking bad news....?)

Shares are a gamble - Looks like I have LOST on NR BIG STYLE £25,00 value is now worth £1,860 at the close of play today.

I guess I should not have believed the Goverment when they said NR is the safest place to put your money (as a depositor) as they would get support to 'help them through the crisis'......mmmmm If only I had a crystal ball!

So - Tonight I'm pondering - sell tomorrow and recover something (perhaps)...or wait and see & hope that they do not do a Marconi?

baby_boomer

OverlandLandy wrote: »

I guess I should not have believed the Goverment when they said NR is the safest place to put your money (as a depositor) as they would get support to 'help them through the crisis'..

The government didn't deceive you. It was a [very unfortunate ] misunderstanding. [Plenty of those around - dunstonh thought the government hadn't lent the Rock anything at one stage.]

"Helping NR through the crisis" could leave depositors money & (maybe) the business intact but still leave shareholders with nothing.

A problem at the moment is that any potential buyer knows that it is likely to get a better deal the longer the government's political embarrassment lasts.

They're in no rush.

I'm afraid that I have no idea, though, whether the Rock is worth something or nothing. Nor, on today's Big Dipper evidence, does the market.

OverlandLandy

baby_boomer wrote: »

The government didn't deceive you. It was a [very unfortunate ] misunderstanding.

Understatement of the year

I made the decision based on their 'assurance'. I guess I believe that they care, to a degree, about world opinion and have a degree of concern that a bank failing in the UK (regardless of share of trade) is bad news for everyone. If it fails it will cost us all a lot more (as taxpayers) than the headline figures suggest.

So - I'm not blaming anyone, I make my own decisions and I'm glad that I live in a country where I have the freedom to make my own decisions (be they right or wrong).

I will recover from the losses and will do that by cutting down on other expenditure - but if everyone who is effected does that it just hastens the economic downward spiral. We live in a Boom & Bust cycle......its just that no-one is clever enough to predict the pattern!!!

gt94sss2

OverlandLandy wrote: »

I'm just wondering how many other lenders are in the same position but are not disclosing (Barclays....look like they are doing the drip drip appraoch to leaking bad news....?)

None - the problems Northern Rock have are unique to them, due to their extreme over reliance on one stream of funding.

While other financial companies may also have some problems no other retail bank relied on this source of funding so heavily or has had to use the Lender of Last Resort facility for years.. - companies have to tell shareholders if profits are likely to be 10% below the year before..

What I dont like is the government not revealing the terms of the financing and the interest rate being paid - you can bet the bidders/city have a very good idea.. its only the small shareholder who doesn't

Regards
Sunil

Sapphire

baby_boomer wrote: »

Nonsense. If you tear up contract law like this you create chaos.

And our current standard of living has received a huge boost from the invention of the joint stock / limited liability company in 1844.

You've got to take the rough with the smooth.

Now should bank shareholders look very closely at director bonuses to see if they are aligned with shareholder interests? That's a better approach to pursue and there is much mileage in it.

If an individual is directly responsible for the downfall of a company, he should not be able to pocket hundreds of thousands (or millions). He should bear the brunt of the responsibility. There should be laws in place to prevent people from taking stupid (and obvious) risks. And how can people like Applegarth even stay in their positions after they have ruined a company?

ManAtHome

Well Applegarth is going (hopefully without a golden parachute), but he did cop for over 2 milllion quid when he flogged his shares earlier this year (whilst telling eveyone else to BUY BUY BUY). I there was any justice, he'd never work again, but will probably pop up somewhere as a non-exec or government advisor.

What happens next? options look like:
1. Try flogging to a robbber-baron (shareholders wouldn't go for it)
2. government takeover (aka Railtrack) - possible shareholder court action
3. let it fold - banks have to stump up (deposit protection) and everyone thinks (if they don't already know) that nulab are planks.
4. let it drag on until all mortgages have departed (crap rates) then close it down - leaves taxpayers exposed to bad debts, drags on well after latest possible date for next election (see last bit of #3 above).

any others?