Shares pain for posties
Staff hit as Royal Mail stock dives
ROYAL Mail workers have lost out on windfalls of up to £2,600 each - while
City investors have made a killing.
Some staff say they’ve had to cancel dream holidays after a recent slump in the value of shares they own. Others had planned to hand the money to their children to help with university fees. Yesterday was the first day when 150,000 workers handed free shares in Royal Mail at its privatisation five years ago this month could begin selling them tax-free.
Most have held on to them until now, when many planned to sell at least some. But staff have watched in alarm as the share price has plunged 30% since a profit warning on October 1.
Those who later took a chance to sign up for extra shares now have 913 – but have seen the value of their stake fall from £4,355 to £3,131. At their peak in May this year, the shares were worth £5,770. Yesterday’s tax-free sale option only applied to the 613 shares first allocated when Royal Mail was floated in 2013. The paper loss has been partly offset by dividends since then, amounting to £863 for an employee with 913 shares. But that is dwarfed by the money City investors have made from the privatisation, some of whom made a fortune when Royal Mail’s share price rocketed in the initial aftermath of the 2013 sell-off. Some staff claim the profit warning was deliberately timed ahead of yesterday’s tax-free date. Royal Mail denies this.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, said: “The tone was set on day one of the privatisation when the very same banks that advised the Government on the offer price made tens of millions of pounds from massive undervaluing of the shares. “This was nothing more than a huge transfer of wealth by the Tory-led Coalition to the very richest in society.”
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