Although Businesses getting into debt was not blamed for the financial crisis, there was almost certainly a degree of protectionism of businesses in order to reduce contagion in the stock markets, by the international financial industry. Private Equity buyouts were certainly a factor which contributed to the crisis as a lot of debt including the debt Barclays lent to the buyers of Alliance Boots, just before the crisis could not be sold by Barclays. Below is a list of Buyouts of companies which had their origins in the U.K. This is however only a fraction of the total companies involved in buyouts as there have been many more involving oversees companies, and in the U.S. buyouts reached epidemic levels. British banks were involved in many more international deals as well as any British deals they were involved in.
This will be expanded later to show all international buyouts. That will give a better idea of what is really going on in the 'buyout' world. The reason being that British businesses have been favoured by oversees investors just as british property has. This is really for no more a complex reason that the U.K. being a leader of capitalism. Basically, the more money that gets thrown at the U.K. , the more money will stick to it in the future! This means business and property get over valued. Its one of the reasons that the London Stock Exchange along with New York is one of the favoured Stock Exchanges to sell businesses. Anyway, the point is that the Big British companies are not going to be on this list in the future simply because the big British companies are becoming U.S., Indian or Chinese owned. There are likely to be less U.K. buyouts in the future not because there are less buyouts but because there are fewer big U.K. companies as a result of them being sold over seas!
The list below certainly shows how lending grew in the lead up to the crisis. It also shows that it has made a better recovery than lending to buy homes. (We should start to question how much of this lending to businesses is draining potential loans for homes and if all this investment is being used to prop up the stock market at the expense of home loans. I don't think there is much doubt. But how much of an affect ?) All of these buyouts will involve borrowed money. Probably 75-80% of the money below will be leant by big investment banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs.
What you need to ask is will these companies benefit from the dept which will be added to them?
Or is it all just to benefit some executives of these companies who can pay themselves with the borrowed money, along with the bankers who can have their fees paid by the borrowed money?
And where a company is sold by the government, is it just so the government can receive a trough load of cash, which some of which could be put into government spending, but also could boost government wages and pensions!? What ever happens to the cash, we will be paying for the original service but with added interest to pay to the investors of those businesses who buy them.
Whatever good comes from buyouts and privatisation, no matter what your political views are, there is no way that the benefits from this can possibly justify the extra costs we are having to pay. You need look no further than the current increases in energy bills to see it just does not work. The mainstream media and press will not usually tell you that your charges are rising because you are having to pay the investors costs, in the same way a tenant pays the investment costs to a landlord. But then if they ask the owner of a business why prices are rising, they are unlikely to say, "Well we borrowed a fortune to buy the business and we only bought it because we want a bundle of cash for ourselves which has been added to the costs of the debt which the customer is having to pay on top of the actual running costs of he business."
The truth will normally be substituted by the 'euro crisis', 'recession' or 'low margins'. There will certainly be no end in sight of them using the euro crisis or recesion as an excuse because whilst the stock markets and banks continue adding costs to our lives as a result of these buyouts we will have no spare cash to fund an exit from any recession as our basic living costs continue to rise!
January 2012
8.68% of Thames Water £500 Million
Sold to China Investment Corporation
September 2011
Charter International £1.5 Billion
Sold to Colfax of USA
August 2011
Autonomy Software £7.1 Billion
Hewlett Packard of U.S.
March 2011
Forth Ports
(Owner of Tilbury Docks and other British Ports) £754 Million
Sold to consortium including Deutsche bank
August 2010
International Power Merged
Merged with GDF Suez
April 2010
Arriva Bus company £1.5 Billion
Sold to Deutsche Bahn, Germany
March 2010
Camelot- Lottery Operator £389 Million
January 2010
Cadbury £11.5 Billion
Sold to Kraft, American multi-national
October 2009
20% of BMI-Airline £38 Million
Sold to Lufthansa (bought from SAS)
July 2009
Tomkins-Engineering co. £2.9 Billion
December 2008
British Energy £12.5 Billion
Sold to EDF, France.
February 2008
Burren Energy £1.7 Billion
Sold to ENI, Italy
January 2008
Scottish & Newcastle-Brewery £7.6 Million
Sold to Heineken & Carlsberg
August 2007
ICI £8 Billion
Sold to AkzoNobel, Holland
February 2007
Liverpool FC £285 Million
Sold to Tom Hick & George Gillet, USA
January 2007
Corus-Steel £6.2 Billion
Sold to Tata, India
Alliance Boots Chemist £12Billion
Sold to KKR and Stefano Pessina
December 2006
Gallaher-Tobacco £7.5 Billion
Sold to Japan Tobacco
November 2006
Scottish Power £12 Billion
Sold to Iberdrola, Spain
September 2006
British Oxygen (BOC) Group £8.2 Billion
Sold to Linde Group, Germany
July 2006
Associated British Ports £3.17 Billion
Sold to Consortium
June 2006
Pilkington-Glass £1.8 Billion
Sold to Nippon, Japan
British Airport Authority(BAA) £10.6 Billion
Sold to Ferrovial Group, Spain
March 2006
P&O-Shipping £6.8 Billion
February 2006
Westinghouse-Power station builder £5.4 Billion
October 2005
MmO2-Mobile phone network £18 Billion
Sold to Telefonica, Spain
August 2005
British Plaster Board £3.9 Billion
Sold to Saint-Gobain, France
May 2005
Manchester Utd £800 Million
Sold to Glazer Family, USA
October 2004
Abbey Bank £8.6 Billion
Sold to Santander, Spain
September 2004
Southern Cross Healthcare £162 Million
Sold to Blackstone Private Equity, USA
February 2004
Amersham £9 Billion
Sold to GE Healthcare
December 2003
Debenhams-Retailer
June 2003
Chelsea FC £140 Million
Sold to Roman Abramovich
March 2002
N Power-Energy Supplier £3 Billion
Sold to RWE
January 2001
Blue Circle-Cement £3.1 Million
Sold to Lafarge, France
November 2000
Thames Water £4.3 Billion
Sold to RWE, Holland
May 2000
Orange- Mobile phone network £26.9 Billion
Sold to France Telecom
April 2000
Robert Fleming & Co-Investment Bank £7.7 Billion
Sold to Chase Manhattan, USA
January 2000
Courtaulds Textiles £150 Million
Sold to Sara Lee, USA
Schroders Invstment Banking £1.36 Billion
Sold to Citigroup, USA
June 1999
Asda- Supermarket £6.7 Million
Sold to Walmart, World biggest retailer, USA
November 1998
London Electricity £1.9 Billion
Sold by Entergy, USA to EDF, France
This will be expanded later to show all international buyouts. That will give a better idea of what is really going on in the 'buyout' world. The reason being that British businesses have been favoured by oversees investors just as british property has. This is really for no more a complex reason that the U.K. being a leader of capitalism. Basically, the more money that gets thrown at the U.K. , the more money will stick to it in the future! This means business and property get over valued. Its one of the reasons that the London Stock Exchange along with New York is one of the favoured Stock Exchanges to sell businesses. Anyway, the point is that the Big British companies are not going to be on this list in the future simply because the big British companies are becoming U.S., Indian or Chinese owned. There are likely to be less U.K. buyouts in the future not because there are less buyouts but because there are fewer big U.K. companies as a result of them being sold over seas!
The list below certainly shows how lending grew in the lead up to the crisis. It also shows that it has made a better recovery than lending to buy homes. (We should start to question how much of this lending to businesses is draining potential loans for homes and if all this investment is being used to prop up the stock market at the expense of home loans. I don't think there is much doubt. But how much of an affect ?) All of these buyouts will involve borrowed money. Probably 75-80% of the money below will be leant by big investment banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs.
What you need to ask is will these companies benefit from the dept which will be added to them?
Or is it all just to benefit some executives of these companies who can pay themselves with the borrowed money, along with the bankers who can have their fees paid by the borrowed money?
And where a company is sold by the government, is it just so the government can receive a trough load of cash, which some of which could be put into government spending, but also could boost government wages and pensions!? What ever happens to the cash, we will be paying for the original service but with added interest to pay to the investors of those businesses who buy them.
Whatever good comes from buyouts and privatisation, no matter what your political views are, there is no way that the benefits from this can possibly justify the extra costs we are having to pay. You need look no further than the current increases in energy bills to see it just does not work. The mainstream media and press will not usually tell you that your charges are rising because you are having to pay the investors costs, in the same way a tenant pays the investment costs to a landlord. But then if they ask the owner of a business why prices are rising, they are unlikely to say, "Well we borrowed a fortune to buy the business and we only bought it because we want a bundle of cash for ourselves which has been added to the costs of the debt which the customer is having to pay on top of the actual running costs of he business."
The truth will normally be substituted by the 'euro crisis', 'recession' or 'low margins'. There will certainly be no end in sight of them using the euro crisis or recesion as an excuse because whilst the stock markets and banks continue adding costs to our lives as a result of these buyouts we will have no spare cash to fund an exit from any recession as our basic living costs continue to rise!
January 2012
8.68% of Thames Water £500 Million
Sold to China Investment Corporation
September 2011
Charter International £1.5 Billion
Sold to Colfax of USA
August 2011
Autonomy Software £7.1 Billion
Hewlett Packard of U.S.
March 2011
Forth Ports
(Owner of Tilbury Docks and other British Ports) £754 Million
Sold to consortium including Deutsche bank
August 2010
International Power Merged
Merged with GDF Suez
April 2010
Arriva Bus company £1.5 Billion
Sold to Deutsche Bahn, Germany
March 2010
Camelot- Lottery Operator £389 Million
January 2010
Cadbury £11.5 Billion
Sold to Kraft, American multi-national
October 2009
20% of BMI-Airline £38 Million
Sold to Lufthansa (bought from SAS)
July 2009
Tomkins-Engineering co. £2.9 Billion
December 2008
British Energy £12.5 Billion
Sold to EDF, France.
February 2008
Burren Energy £1.7 Billion
Sold to ENI, Italy
January 2008
Scottish & Newcastle-Brewery £7.6 Million
Sold to Heineken & Carlsberg
August 2007
ICI £8 Billion
Sold to AkzoNobel, Holland
February 2007
Liverpool FC £285 Million
Sold to Tom Hick & George Gillet, USA
January 2007
Corus-Steel £6.2 Billion
Sold to Tata, India
Alliance Boots Chemist £12Billion
Sold to KKR and Stefano Pessina
December 2006
Gallaher-Tobacco £7.5 Billion
Sold to Japan Tobacco
November 2006
Scottish Power £12 Billion
Sold to Iberdrola, Spain
September 2006
British Oxygen (BOC) Group £8.2 Billion
Sold to Linde Group, Germany
July 2006
Associated British Ports £3.17 Billion
Sold to Consortium
June 2006
Pilkington-Glass £1.8 Billion
Sold to Nippon, Japan
British Airport Authority(BAA) £10.6 Billion
Sold to Ferrovial Group, Spain
March 2006
P&O-Shipping £6.8 Billion
February 2006
Westinghouse-Power station builder £5.4 Billion
October 2005
MmO2-Mobile phone network £18 Billion
Sold to Telefonica, Spain
August 2005
British Plaster Board £3.9 Billion
Sold to Saint-Gobain, France
May 2005
Manchester Utd £800 Million
Sold to Glazer Family, USA
October 2004
Abbey Bank £8.6 Billion
Sold to Santander, Spain
September 2004
Southern Cross Healthcare £162 Million
Sold to Blackstone Private Equity, USA
February 2004
Amersham £9 Billion
Sold to GE Healthcare
December 2003
Debenhams-Retailer
June 2003
Chelsea FC £140 Million
Sold to Roman Abramovich
March 2002
N Power-Energy Supplier £3 Billion
Sold to RWE
January 2001
Blue Circle-Cement £3.1 Million
Sold to Lafarge, France
November 2000
Thames Water £4.3 Billion
Sold to RWE, Holland
May 2000
Orange- Mobile phone network £26.9 Billion
Sold to France Telecom
April 2000
Robert Fleming & Co-Investment Bank £7.7 Billion
Sold to Chase Manhattan, USA
January 2000
Courtaulds Textiles £150 Million
Sold to Sara Lee, USA
Schroders Invstment Banking £1.36 Billion
Sold to Citigroup, USA
June 1999
Asda- Supermarket £6.7 Million
Sold to Walmart, World biggest retailer, USA
November 1998
London Electricity £1.9 Billion
Sold by Entergy, USA to EDF, France
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