Capital Gains

H

HaZrD

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2005
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
Let's start with an excerp from Telkom's website (from "About us")

--- begin ---
Telkom shareholders, as of 30 September 2004:
38.3% Government
46.6% The public (institutional and retail investors)
15.1% Thintana Communications LLC
--- end---

OK.... Since the majority share belongs to the public sector, would it not then stand to reason that the public wants the high prices that Telkom is apparently shatfing us with?

Seems to me that a mostly public company is answering to the shareholders (of which 46.6% is the public)...

Why then is the public (who have this huge share in Telkom) not satisfied with the pricing models/structures?

Oh, maybe it's because we all believe in capitalism as long as WE are the ones making the money and not someone else (even tho they are in the public sector...)
 
they making more money from telkom than they are payin them so they prob don't give a *&^% about everyone else as long as they get their fair share of the cash cows.
 
HaZrD said:
Let's start with an excerp from Telkom's website (from "About us")

--- begin ---
Telkom shareholders, as of 30 September 2004:
38.3% Government
46.6% The public (institutional and retail investors)
15.1% Thintana Communications LLC
--- end---

OK.... Since the majority share belongs to the public sector, would it not then stand to reason that the public wants the high prices that Telkom is apparently shatfing us with?

Seems to me that a mostly public company is answering to the shareholders (of which 46.6% is the public)...

Why then is the public (who have this huge share in Telkom) not satisfied with the pricing models/structures?

Oh, maybe it's because we all believe in capitalism as long as WE are the ones making the money and not someone else (even tho they are in the public sector...)
Click to expand...
Uhm, because the public will have a large amount of shareholders with small total share values while the institutionals (Pension funds, investment managers and corporates) will be small in number but have large total share values. Individual investors can almost never compete with the institutionals.

The institutional investors will be looking for maximum returns and will leave the governing of Telkom to the execs. Only large shareholders (Gov, Thintana) will be able get people appointed to the board.
 
OK - I give up - why is this in "Forum suggestions and gripes"?
 
What is HaZrD's stake in Telkom? Why is he defending it so????

HaZrD said:
Why then is the public (who have this huge share in Telkom) not satisfied with the pricing models/structures?

Oh, maybe it's because we all believe in capitalism as long as WE are the ones making the money and not someone else (even tho they are in the public sector...)
Click to expand...

Do you know anything about what the word MONOPOLY means? If you did you wouldn't be making these silly statements.

The government share is held by a single entity that wields on its own 38% power in Telkom. The 46% public share that you see there is wielded by loads of individuals (be they insignificant when compared to the SAfrican population just in case you were going to use the democracy card) who individually have very little say in Telkom. That is why government is the largest SINGLE shareholder in Telkom...

That is where the power lies. The problem is that Telkom is a protected monopoly and has been so for over 10 years now. A monopoly controls prices and production levels, which is the main reason we pay so much and the penetration of telephony in SA is so poor.

You will have to stretch your imagination to the point if insanity to say that the private shares in Telkom speak for the majority of SAfricans and you would do yourself an even bigger disfavor by thinking Telkom is defendable.

This is not capitalism because the free market doesn’t rule the roost in our telecoms industry so there goes your theory.

I would love to know why you are defending Telkom so much. What is your stake in all of this? It is not logical, that much we know…
 
Yeah,

I totally agree with Antowan.

Any shareholder would want to see the maximum return of his investment and will instruct the Board accordingly.

In a free market, you have to be carefull though, because, if your prices are too high, you will lose market share and thus diminish your returns. Thus teh balance betwen equitable prices and shareholder returns.

BUT Telkom is a MONOPOLY, protected by the state, who btw is a large shareholder. If you can not see the problem with this, then you need to have your head examined.

:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X