I have a problem understanding how all this will end up ......
1 - Government 'sells' 49% to the Airline Group, who put in ~£60m of their own money and then borrow ~£650m, saddling that debt onto NATS. (2005, shares were valued around £1.20 I recall?)
2 - If the Airline Group then decide to sell out their 49% share, with shares now valued at ~£2.10, and that share of NATS valued at around ~£1.2bn? .... would the Airline Group then be able to just walk away with a cash profit of 90p per share (plus the £45 million 'one-off' bonus they received this year) ? I make that about £350m profit.....
paid for by screwing your pension fund and screwing your pay and conditions ... ?
.. or is it naive to expect that any 'profit' is paid back into NATS to reduce its debt burden ? Are we not after all a not-for-profit organisation ?
3 -New owners come in and buy it .... can they just borrow the purchase capital and dump the debt on NATS again ?
Sadly I have no doubt that some scribbly beancounter is sharpening his pencil as we speak, looking at the bonuses, fees, creative accounting and kudos of dealing with Air Traffic Control, while the workers just get screwed over again .......
Happy to be corrected on my simple grasp of short-termist New Labour Britain.