Justin is one of the most recognisable and trusted market commentators on television, radio, and in the press.
Originally trained as a lawyer, he has observed the retail market industry for 20 years whilst at Barclays Stockbrokers and developed a unique understanding of the market’s roles and benefits for the private investor.
Each week we will bring you Justin’s latest thoughts and commentry.
For a taster of this week’s article please continue to read..
Getting real value out of the Royal Mail
Royal Mail (RM). So out come the pictures of pre Big Bang brokers with wide suits and dodgy hairstyles and we are immediately being brought back to the world of the old Thatcher privatisations. Certain stockbrokers will be licking their lips at such potential volumes of trades if the Royal Mail privatisation actually goes ahead, as they will benefit from an autumnal windfall of share sales as 21st century Sid cashes in his punt on the market.
Now I agree that RM should be brought back into private ownership, if only to get it away from the interfering politicians who have used and abused it over the years. It was almost twenty years ago that Heseltine tried and failed to get the beast freed and it was seen then as being a ‘privatisation too far’. Of course, this was before email and the internet and so RM was suffering from aggressive and effective competition from the Dutch and even the Malaysian mail services, as junk mail was redirected through their now far more competitive companies. RM had no answer to this except to be seen as almost a dying business as volume was taken away and an unreformed cost base rotted the value from within.
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