Royal Mail Stock Holding – What to Do?

gt94sss2

benny5 said:

wmb194 said:

Caroles54 said:

I  too am finding the IDS paper work confusing. I strictly don't want to sell, especially abroad. I got my small share holding when the PO was privatised to stop big companies taking over/having too much control and with the hope one day it would be renationalised. I feel I am being forced to sell as there is no mention of what happens if you do not accept and even on the internet it is not clear.

Look for my comments up thread; you'll only be forced to sell if 90%+ of shares accept the offer. Otherwise it'll either fail and this will be forgotten about or you'll become a shareholder in an unlisted company (75%+).

Out of interest, should the takeover fail, what will happen to those that have ‘surrendered’ their holdings either electronically or by post?

Will the certificates be returned/electronic holdings reinstated?

No, if you have accepted the offer, you will have sold the shares.

Lifes_Grand_Plan

I'm really torn on 'to sell or not to sell'....

On the one hand, this guy looking to takeover doesn't seem like a mug and wouldn't be doing this if he didn't think he could improve profitability, so makes me a bit tempted to keep hold.

On the other hand, the Unions hold a lot of power and will always hamstring significant change, not to mention the USO, compared to the private competitors, so unless Kretinsky can solve those ball and chains around RMs ankle, then how can he ever (greatly) improve profitability.

Due to the 'unknown' in all of the above, i'm inclined to sell and put the money into my S&S ISA which has shown 25% upside in the last 18 months so a better bet and something much easier to manage.

DUBVENDOR

Lifes_Grand_Plan said:

I'm really torn on 'to sell or not to sell'....

On the one hand, this guy looking to takeover doesn't seem like a mug and wouldn't be doing this if he didn't think he could improve profitability, so makes me a bit tempted to keep hold.

On the other hand, the Unions hold a lot of power and will always hamstring significant change, not to mention the USO, compared to the private competitors, so unless Kretinsky can solve those ball and chains around RMs ankle, then how can he ever (greatly) improve profitability.

Due to the 'unknown' in all of the above, i'm inclined to sell and put the money into my S&S ISA which has shown 25% upside in the last 18 months so a better bet and something much easier to manage.

I don't understand why you would sell now for £3.70 when just a few years ago the could have been sold for around £6 if you have held these for a number of years . 

[Deleted User]

wmb194 said:

Zoe02 said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

I sold most of mine at £6, like I did with Bradford & Bingley shares (just as well), but held onto 20%.

I haven't received any notifications or offers. I always assumed smaller shareholders had no option but to sell if a takeover was taking place.

How do you hold them? No, shareholders in the same class usually have all the same rights. There can be issues if you're domiciled abroad, particularly in the US where laws will prevent residents there participating fully or at all.

The problem is that some stockbrokers aren't very interested in participating in shareholder democracy so you need to push them* and if you hold them via certificates the registrars aren't always very good at sending out the communications promptly e.g., see recent threads on the National Grid rights issue and complaints about Equiniti.

*And even then they might show no interest, which is my recent experience with Trading212. However, with the National Grid rights issue it was perfectly fine.

Originally I had a share certificate, but they are now held with HL in a nominee account(?)

Yes, that's a nominee account. If HL hasn't given you the option to choose then you should ask. In my experience stockbrokers are bad at giving their customers the opportunity to vote London listed shares at annual meetings but for things like takeovers and rights issues they're usually not bad. Unrelated to IDS but even iWeb gave me the opportunity to vote some shares last week re cancellation and tender.

Am with Iweb didn't get any communication but only have 359 shares from the IPO. 

The number of shares you own shouldn't matter; log-in to your account and look for, "corporate actions" in the menu and see if there's something there. There might be a, "1" in the, "unactioned optional events" column. If so, click on your account name.

Got the email from Iweb today they are offering 360p for each of my 359 shares.

[Deleted User]

I am 50/50 as the shares has not done so well from the IPO and postal services now more competitive.

wmb194

DUBVENDOR said:

Lifes_Grand_Plan said:

I'm really torn on 'to sell or not to sell'....

On the one hand, this guy looking to takeover doesn't seem like a mug and wouldn't be doing this if he didn't think he could improve profitability, so makes me a bit tempted to keep hold.

On the other hand, the Unions hold a lot of power and will always hamstring significant change, not to mention the USO, compared to the private competitors, so unless Kretinsky can solve those ball and chains around RMs ankle, then how can he ever (greatly) improve profitability.

Due to the 'unknown' in all of the above, i'm inclined to sell and put the money into my S&S ISA which has shown 25% upside in the last 18 months so a better bet and something much easier to manage.

I don't understand why you would sell now for £3.70 when just a few years ago the could have been sold for around £6 if you have held these for a number of years . 

Because RM hasn't been doing very well and no one today wants to pay you 600p per share. The question is, do you think the business can be improved to the point where they might be worth more or is it better to sell them today at the best price anyone has offered in quite a while and reinvest the money in a better business(ess)? (Not hard.)

DUBVENDOR

The value of GLS is worth £3.70 on its own RMG has loads of prime land around the UK worth many £M . The price has been driven down to allow for a takeover at a bargain price  . The parcel business is only going to get bigger with the death of the high st ect . 

Lifes_Grand_Plan

DUBVENDOR said:

The value of GLS is worth £3.70 on its own RMG has loads of prime land around the UK worth many £M . The price has been driven down to allow for a takeover at a bargain price  . The parcel business is only going to get bigger with the death of the high st ect . 

I'm interested in how you think the price has been "driven down to allow for a takeover" if you can share some more detail.

In my mind the price has gone down because of a) the unions and strikes which resulted in a big drop in profits, but even before that b) competition from other providers and especially Amazon with their own services which IMHO will likely only grow in future. Neither of those issues is going away any time soon IMHO but interested to hear an alternate view.

Oh and to add, hasn't a fair bit of the land already been sold of with moves to lease back? And even if not, a few hundred million worth of land isn't massive for a company with revenue in the billions.

Section62

DUBVENDOR said:

The value of GLS is worth £3.70 on its own RMG has loads of prime land around the UK worth many £M . The price has been driven down to allow for a takeover at a bargain price  . The parcel business is only going to get bigger with the death of the high st ect . 

Where is this 'prime land'?

Maybe if it was still the 1970's and RM still owned sites in town and city centres that could be redeveloped for retail... but it isn't.

Most town centre sites were vacated by RM in one of the many earlier rationalisations, decamping to units on industrial parks that they don't necessarily own. And if they do then it isn't necessarily 'prime land' as the demand now is for big sites on major roads for logistics, not small units on a poky industrial estate surrounded by housing and congested roads.

And following multiple rationalisations, are there any sites on 'prime land' which are surplus to operational requirements, or would realising the value of this land involve acquiring other sites and then absorbing the cost of transferring operations to new locations?

The "death of the high st" thing isn't just an opportunity for delivery companies - it is also having and impact on where people want to locate and in consequence affecting the value of land, including in locations that were once considered to be 'prime'.  If RM had a landbank of sites suitable for residential development they might be onto a winner.... but my own perception is that opportunity has largely been exploited long ago.

DUBVENDOR

One example of the share price manipulation was a profits warning was issued almost to the same day when the Staffs holdings of free shares could be could sold tax free  . crashing the price  and don't  forget the line we are losing £1M a day which was first spun out in the 80s .