Originally Posted by
groundhand
NCL development was held back for many years, not because of poor senior management but because Government borrowing policies prevented the business from being able to access monies from normal commercial sources. Development had to be self financed and this stopped a lot of the more 'ambitious' plans coming to fruition. Imagine having a business with double digit percentage growth year on year, profits increasing year on year but not being able to access commercial banking loans?? To say that previous management were frustrated, JB the FD in particular, is a tad of an understatement.
Now that these restrictions have been lifted there is a lot of catch-up to do.
I was at NCL shortly after the enforced incorporation after the 87 act, which brought in the borrowing restrictions and I left before the councils sold off a controlling share in NIAL - so I'm happy to be corrected. But, as I recall groundhand, the change came at NCL not because the rules were changed but because the owners of NIAL eventually accepted the rules and sold off a controlling interest - allowing NIAL to access commercial loans. These rules didn't change in 1997, BTW. JB was frustrated by many things. An unexpected large payment to the PTE for the Metro extension would be one, including the massive cost for the, IMHO, pointless road bridge when it should've been left on the old line so it could've gone on to Pont. An underestimate (compared to the tenders) of magnificent proportions of the cost of a runway resurfacing would be another. If NIAL was strapped for cash, why did the owners distribute profits?
Anyway, all history - glad to see 5M exceeded - we were pretty impressed with 2M.