The Czech in question is of course one Daniel Kretinsky who last Thursday announced that he has taken his stake in International Distribution Services (IDS) up to 26%. He has openly stated that he does not want to take over the entire company but then he would say that wouldn’t he.
IDS is still losing money hand over fist. This is because it is still statutorily compelled to deliver every day six days a week – which obligation is pointless given that cheques are virtually never used nowadays (I have not sent a cheque for well over a year) and email has supplanted first class post where immediacy is sought. Deliveries could be three days a week – so the waste of money is truly heroic.
Junk mail deliveries are never urgent – although profitable to IDS. Government communications could easily be expected to be within a week of posting. Letter post is running at about 40% of ten years ago.
Thinking aloud and possibly inadequately I imagine that the original flotation prospectus for IDS some ten years ago would have stressed the six days a week delivery obligation. But if I were a NED I would like to explore the wheeze of distributing the parcels division right out of IDS and into shareholders’ hands. That would not count as a fraudulent preference (I think) and would clear the decks for a proper scrap with HMG and the CWU. There is no point in HMG giving IDS an easy time since the Communication Workers Union flatly refuses to grow up and, seemingly, the only way forward is to take IDS down to the point where there is no money. It may also be the case that HMG does not want yet another cause of discontent on the run to the next election.
IDS is currently capitalised at c. £2bn as against tangible net asset value of, say, £3bn. I have just paid 200p. Surely I will make 50% on the investment.
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I do not know about all readers’ personal preferences but I reckon that relatively few readers want a fund manager who, while managing the reader’s funds, is struggling to get his trousers down. However, Crispin Odey has not so conducted himself. It follows that his being sidelined by his colleagues indicates desperation on their part since they have had to listen to some pathetic banks seeking to ingratiate themselves with customers.
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Johnson is a comic chap but those who want him back right now must be completely mad. PM material he is not.