Saturday, January 19, 2008

Northern Rock

A post about mammon this week and I can do little better than
to copy and paste from my recent post on SC:

So Northern Rock (LSE: epic NRK)
shareprice fell another 7% today to c. 64p

The talk of nationalisation should imho be clarified
by the govt. issuing a statement saying that it hasn't
been ruled in or out but that if NRK is taken compulsorily
into the State sector, the basis for any payment
to shareholders will be the lower of:

LSE mid sp on Nationalisation Day or
True worth of the co. as ascertained by
independent accountant upon the premise
that there were in place no open ended govt.
guarantees benfitting NRK's depositors or business,
beyond those that applied to all UK banks
b4 the crisis began.

The City pros. who bought in recently appear (Indy reports)
to be demanding a true worth
payment of c.£4 a share upon nationalisation
and threatening 'human rights' based court action
if they do not get their £s payments.

That kind of posturing should be dealt with by
govt/BoE asap and firmly imho.

Some govt. backbone in the face of any such
quasi blackmail would be essential and the
govt would need to get its
defence in first with a clear public statement now otherwise
taxpayers risk being fleeeced.

I accept that many PIs including loyal NRK
holders from Newcastle are not investing in
the same way but share investing is fraught with
risk for everyone and there is no human
right to be bailed out when the risk
crystalises. You cannot decide that one shareholder
deserves more than another where the class
of shares each holds is the same.

Also I'd be pretty certain that most SCs could
name a co in their p/f the sp of which is far below its true worth
yet we all know that the real worth
is what the market will pay as shown by
the SP from time to time. Why should the
govt. featherbed NRK holders :shocked:

This post is not directed at any SC holders of
NRK shares but at the possibility of incompetent,
or worse govt. and huge waste of taxpayers' monies. :shocked:

I post as a taxpayer and do not hold NRK shares. :p


The saga continues.

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