Member Info for OliGarch

Apologies, trying to message with wet fingers and hit the "post" button by mistake.
davemk115, "If Amazon did get the contract they would probably just farm it out to RM".
If you had said that last year I would have agreed but Amazon have increased their UK coverage over the last 12 months and can now reach more delivery points.

davemk115, "If Amazon did get the contract they would probably just farm it out to RM".

if you had said that last year

Thanks JB. What gives you the impression that Amazon might be in the running for the contract? In my opinion Bezos should start paying his share of UK taxation before he can tender for the goodies.

Tony and jiddy, they are both tidy returns. I only hold a couple of thousand shares now but they are effectively free plus I have been receiving the dividend payments since 2013. It's nice to see the SP go up for a change and to speculate on the business in order to work out where the SP is going next. It's almost as baffling as freshwater fishing.

Thanks JB. I was searching under Royal Mail but it's currently listed as parcel services and not yet attributed to RM. Hopefully RM might be able to recover the losses from the first 6 months and even post a profit next year on the strength of this.
I noticed that there are two identical contracts or did the first one expire without being allocated?

Boris: "the rules around the transport of this (Pfizer Biontec) vaccine are extremely important"
JVT: "this isn't a yoghurt that you can take out the fridge and put back".
Given the complexities of transportation with this vaccine coupled with the current stretched capacity of RMG, are RMG really on the best position to transport this expensive cargo?

JB, the tender process is not showing up on the bidstats website?
http://bidstats.uk/tenders/?q=royal+mail
Perhaps I'm not putting in the correct search string?

Shaunymac, I'm not entirely sure that I fully agree with you. Sure the SP will increase on the news of increased and prolonged parcel volumes because that's the sentiment that is driving the SP up however RMG has proved that (currently) the more parcels that it has to deal with the bigger the losses. This will if course be temporarily offset by a five fold increase in letter volumes over December but in January the letter volumes traditionally drop off and catalogue returns increase do we are back to square one again.
Until RM have implemented parcels automation into at least 80% of it's mail centres they will continue to haemorrhage cash. Fortunately for the investors the SP doesn't currently rely on fundamentals as everyone is looking for a good news story but over the next year I believe that the books will be scrutinised more carefully and if RM are still losing money then questions will be asked.

Speedy, is it the same as this?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/royal-mail-to-collect-covid-19-test-kits-7-days-a-week
RM have been collecting the home Covid-19 kits for months now and this is a 9 month contract ending in January 2021 and was worth £140m.

Speedy, unfortunately I don't have a Torygraph subscription.
Perhaps you would be kind enough to copy and paste the text?

So, whatever happened to Boris's £550m moonshot contract that was supposed to propel the SP to new heights?

I spoke with our indoor rep this morning. Apparently the Christmas bonus is part of an existing agreement and will be paid regardless. The thinking is that the letter from Keith Williams refers to management bonuses and was aimed at CMA grades.

postman58, thank heavens you have overridden the words of the RM interim executive chair. He had me quite concerned with phrases such as "as you can see, we are showing some signs of improvement, but we will see in the course of the rest of the year if this is sufficient for the payment of any bonuses" and " we have reaffirmed to investors today that although we will not make a decision on the dividend until the end of the year, we do not expect to pay a dividend this year".
I await an announcement this Friday?

postman58, are you related to postman24?

Scamp "Somebody has to be making money somewhere. But if not us...who then?"
It's the small businesses and the general public that are benefitting from RMG's generous discounted prices. If RM were to up their parcel prices in order to break even or make a profit they would be seen as cashing in on the pandemic which wouldn't go down very well with the millions that have lost their jobs and businesses and most certainly the millions that will face a bleak 2021.

Scamp, parcel volumes are through the roof at every RM building but will 'record volumes' and 'record revenue' translate into 'record profits'? Probably not but the bottom line doesn't really matter to the share price. As long as there are massive volumes then the SP will continue to rise even if RM post a £300m loss next year as it's the future potential that matters.
In many ways the current situation is similar to the 1950s and 60s where the GPO existed as a public service which was not expected to make a profit. RMG are bringing us
all a little bit of nostalgia and a discounted postal service....all without government backing.

Scamp, have you received the 'open letter' from Keith Williams yet? It is quite downbeat regarding bonuses and dividend payments and looks as though it's been drafted with a view to being the precursor of bad news. Essentially it is saying "thanks for working your nuts off over the last 9 months but because we are losing £5m a week we are now skint!"
It would have cost the business less to furlough the staff!

Deathfromfinance, if you have held you shares since IPO you will also have received £1.356 per share in dividend payments so you are still winning.
I purchased £10k worth through the work scheme in October 2013 and sold just over £10k worth at £6.06 (my target was £6 but I was lucky enough to catch a rise in the day).
I only hold 913 SIP shares plus 1300 shares that have effectively cost me nothing and returned £1750 in dividend payments. Happy days.

200iq, where did you get you information from regarding a pay deal? According to the letter from Stuart Simpson (dated 19/12/20) that arrived yesterday afternoon, the business is pleading poverty so no bonuses are being paid (presumably including the Christmas bonus) and the dividend is not going to be reinstated during 2021.

beetrootjuice, you could of course (and only in the interest of the customer and business you understand) negotiate 4 x 8hr45min days Monday to Thursday this leaving Friday, Saturday and Sunday free!
Get in my son!!!!
But strictly, only in the interest of good customer service of course?