Posted on 10/13/2013 11:11:41 AM PDT by Olog-hai
More than 100 million Royal Mail shares were traded within 60 minutes of the former monopoly floating on the stock market yesterday.
Their price jumped instantly from £3.30, the sale price set by ministers, to £4.50, allowing critics to say the Government had chronically undervalued the business. The price closed at £4.55a 38 percent increase on the opening price.
The 378-year-old company looks set to join the FTSE index of Britains 100 biggest listed companies, joining household names from BP to Prudential and Vodafone to Diageo.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Would it be a bad thing for the same thing to happen with the USPS?100 million Royal Mail shares traded in just one hour: Frenzy as value leaps by £1 billion on first day of trading and critics say company was woefully undervalued
Maybe a bit of competition might be needed. For argument’s sake: If the USPS had to compete with Federal Express, UPS and DHL for all types of first-class mail, what would postage be?
What? Did England sell their post office to private owners?
“Would it be a bad thing for the same thing to happen with the USPS?”
Anything that decreases government monopoly and/or gives control back to the people is a good thing. I haven’t really looked into how this is going to work in the UK. Will the Royal Mail still be state controlled? Do stockholders have proxy power to vote on leadership etc.? IF you don’t get some level of control for your investment, then it’s really a glorified government bond.
does the UK have delivery other than the Royal Post or are they a monopoly?
Many companies, however the RM almost completely dominate.
Key to this is the current statutory obligation for the Royal mail to deliver each class of mail at a flat rate to every part of the U.K., however remote, regardless of the cost of getting it there. There are fears that this is bound to disappear with the privatized company. The competitors which have sprung up in recent years mostly concentrate on bulk business mailings to the cities.
Incidentally, most formerly state-run mail services in Wstern Europe have already been wholly or partly privatized.
way over valued
Key to this is the current statutory obligation for the Royal mail to deliver each class of mail at a flat rate to every part of the U.K., however remote, regardless of the cost of getting it there.
and i believe that is the only thing keeping the usps from going private as well
The interesting thing is that someone made the decision for the USPS to compete. The result is a headlong dive into where the money is.
It is not letter mail that is nearly obsolete but in internet deliveries....... packages. Packages have a higher revenue per piece. Shippers are switching. E bay has a fantastic setup where Pitney Bowes will automatically print a postage address label with a few streamlined input facts.
Somebody took the existing capabilities, iproved them immensely and is crawling up out of the rut
Package delivery is the future of the USPS. Its prices are cheaper, delivery times the same, and new features like free tracking and insurance make it even more competitive.
Not to mention free pickup [UPS charges $12]. In the one area where the USPS is doing very well and competing hard, you choose to criticize it. No pleasing some people, I guess.
i still don't quite know how that works, do they contract with them or what?
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