Although many of the terms of the PPP agreement have never been made public it has been common knowledge for some time that the Airline Group had agreed not to sell its share until after the New Prestwick Centre was complete. I don't think anybody could have engineered a public finance crisis to correspond with the NPC operational data so I think its just a coincidence.
The writers of the Asset Portfolio seem to have recognised that there only real chance of selling any of the Government's share would be as part of a deal that includes the Airline Group's holding. Prior to that some of us had wondered why anybody would bother to buy the Government shares when they won't give control of the company and are unlikely to provide a reasonable return on the investment.
And yes it was published on Monday, freely available on line after the statements in the Commons and Lords and available on the NATS Intranet before that.
Last edited by eglnyt; 11th Dec 2009 at 17:53.
Reason: correct grammar