"The company said that it had received offers for parts of its business – the owner of the Daily Mail had considered a bid for its crown jewel asset, the i – but “none of the offers received delivered sufficient value” to save the company."
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
OT: Owner of the Scotsman and i newspapers enters administration
(12 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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When was the last time anyone learned anything by reading the Scotsman or the Evening News?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@iwrats - 1824?
Meanwhile Saturday guardian this week has gone to live in Porty. Porty People missed a trick as did Michael Bentine's Porty Time (@wingpig says I look like him). Also fecked up the school bit. But big advert for The Espy
Posted 5 years ago # -
Douglas Fraser's take on all this makes for fairly grim reading:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-46246691
Posted 5 years ago # -
@crowriver - especially the bit about the pension fund. It seems they've left that to us to pick up. This happens all too often now.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@greenroofer - the PPF is paid for by a levy on other occupational pension schemes
That apart, I agree with your sentiment - what the board have done is legal but morally questionable.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The whole UK pension system is a wreck. Ditto for company ownership rules. Predators and state subsidies abound in both and not by coincidence.
Posted 5 years ago # -
State subsidies abound in the UK pension system?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Greenroofer, also another story about a business being crippled by paying off debts at fairly high interest rates to bondholders: who now own the company it seems.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Nelly
I was thinking primarily of tax relief on the purchase price, but would annuities be possible without the Treasury instruments that back them? Are those instruments issued specifically for that purpose?
Posted 5 years ago # -
In theory you can back your annuities with almost any asset. The more mismatched or uncertain the asset/liability cash flows means having to hold higher additional capital so gilts tend to be more atttactive. Gilts will make up some of the backing assets, but corporate bonds and other assets (eg PFI type loans) make up a large proportion. The final choice will be driven by the overall financial strength, attitude to risk and sophistication of the insurer. (This is pretty much my day job, so I could bore at length on this).
The move to issuing longer dated gilts is in part to provide insurers with suitable assets for backing annuities, but it could be argued that some of the regulations give governments guaranteed buyers of their debt.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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