new to trains

take a look at the portfoio of companies that the spannish firm own already....... its a multi national business, ferrovial already own amey construction, amongst other big businesses, these are not spain only industries..... they are already in the UK and several other european countries, you can also see other businesses they had aquired and turned round......they have continued to operate and develop since aquisition...

yes i agree with comments re corus and water for example, but its easy to say 'but why will foreign shareholders care if' .......eg leaky pipes or whatever, but at the end of the day the consumers do have a say and now we can vote with out feet, and lets be straight these businesses also have the option to invest in their own future through development and infrastructure investment - if they dont invest its not just the shareholders that will be screaming- so will the punters, the accountants and the share prices..... its industrial suicide
if ferrovial or whoever dont do a good job at say heathrow then people will vote with their feet and will use say luton airport instead,- the airlines and carriers are businesses too, they too will look for improved service and better deals from the new owners, if they dont get it they too will look elsewhere- they want to stay in business too.... i choose not to use BAA airport carparks as they are just too expensive so i use others eg pink elephant parking.... i vote with my feet....in time the airlines and passengers will also if the new owners dont do a good job.

and speaking of the BAA takeover whats the alternative goldmann sachs ??? who are only interested in a short term investment with the intention of selling on in the near future.... the uncertainty is not good for business or for growth and development....... at least ferrovial have experience of operating such businesses- also notice now how our sea ports are also being looked at by goldmann sachs also....... potential monopoly ????- they have no credible experience in these industires, they are being milked purely for financial gain...... how does that benefit the business ?
Many BAA employees are very much in favour of the Ferrovial takeover.... they see the much needed investment and ferrovials track record is a positive thing...
i stand by my previous post i think ferrovial Takeover is a GOOD THING....

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new to trains

so what about me..... left university and went to work for a foreign company in this country..... i cant complain, they have developed me, and have invested in me and have allowed me to buy my home and make savings..... this danish company has now been bought out by a british firm but with US money......so is the company danish, british or american, and does it really matter..... its a multinational world in which we live in now......?



just thinking aloud all the great british marques nearly all now have international investment- its the way of the modern world......

a few example which i think are correct.....

aston martin- owned by ford
trafalgar house owned by skanska
mini owned by BMW
cadbury owned by cocal cola schweppes group

i even heard that meccano is now run by the japs......!

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Bunkerbarge

Without getting bogged down into a political debate which I don't feel is appropriate for this forum I do not feel that comparing manufacturing companies with public service comanies is completely fair.

It is one thing to allow car manufacturers to compete in the outside world but quite another to allow water authorities, british ports, gas suppliers or airports to go the same way.

I think we have a right to expect all public service industries to be run in the best interest of the British public and with due respect to the surrounding environment.

Quite what the relevence is of quoting Mini's as an example I am not so sure. What I am sure of is that if you ask any Rover car worker whether the buy out of Rover by BMW was in the best interest of the British car industry I know what they would say. The only people who benefitted there were the Chinese and BMW who kept the Mini.

I am also not sure what the point is of including British Ports in the same discussion. As far as I am concerned neither Ports nor Airports should be run by either a foreign company or any other publicy owned profit generating organisation whose prime concern is thier shareholders.

I also completely dispute the argument that people will vote with thier feet. Heathrows position makes it the airport of choice for the capital and no matter how it is run by a foreign company will not change that. Do you think for a minute that British Airways will move its operation to Luton because of the way Heathrow is being run.

We will obviously have to agree to disagree on this one and wait to see what the future brings. Unfortunately though the fact that BAA employees are in favour of this buy out probably has more to do with thier personal gain rather than a genuine interest in the quality of service offerred by the airports.

Unfortunately the more and more we are sliced up and dished out to the rest of the world the less and less we have say in our own future.

Such issues as farming subsidies, fishing quota's and the refusal to pay back monies from the EU coffers as agreed by Maggie 20 years ago are far more relevent to the discussion of airport ownership than who makes what car but I don't think this is the place to take these debates any further.