The big event for the MT basket of transport shares - the MT Tracker - is that Royal Mail will be joining this watching brief from tomorrow. The BBC is already reporting this morning that shares will trade at the top of the price range (around 330p) giving it a value of £1.7bn.
As Royal Mail's value, and market cap, will skew the data heavily, much in the way Rentokil did before the management buy-out at CityLink back in April - we will be putting some serious scrutinising into its performance.
Just what kind of company is Royal Mail? Well it had a turnover of £9.3bn in the year ending 31 March, up from £9,1bn a year ago. It made a pre-tax profit of £324m, compared to £201m in the previous year. The reason it makes comparatively little return on such a high turnover is because of the need to provide a universal service, which means visiting every address in the UK, every day. That cost the firm £7.1bn to do last year - and it is a market that is declining in volume. Its universal service business is essentially loss-making - being propped up by the performance of its other divisions.
It doesn't report Parcelforce numbers to OFCOM, as it doesn't have to. But it is not hard to learn the lessons from UK Mail to see that parcels in the boom market, and the one providing the best returns to investors.
Speaking of which, the traditional big six in the MT Tracker have had a quiet week.
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Especially on the market cap's too..
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