Hints and tips:
...The last government IPO before the Royal Mail privatisation was the defence research company Qinetiq in 2006....
...Qinetiq sold the Zephyr programme last year to Astrium, a division of EADS....
...Following the controversy over the 2006 sale of Qinetiq, where private equity partner Carlyle walked off with a huge profit when the defence contractor was floated, the government will be keen to avoid any...
...It is currently stoking controversy with plans to hand private contractors the £14bn a year job of procuring military equipment....
...For all the controversy, the company has begun to deliver and analysts said the share price fall was a buying opportunity for investors....
...The MoD has courted controversy since 2003 when 10 of its top civil servants negotiated the sale of Qinetiq, the research group, subsequently netting £107m for themselves....
...Two years on from flotation, the company is also still dogged by controversy over the amount of money pocketed by its management....
...The government’s privatisation of Qinetiq has been dogged by controversy, with ministers accused of allowing the management to pocket tens of millions of pounds from the flotation in February 2006....
...The flotation – the Labour government’s first real privatisation – attracted widespread controversy over the huge windfalls generated for the management, notably Sir John Chisholm, chairman, and Graham Love...
...But few have generated the scale of controversy that has dogged the sale of Qinetiq. Raising about £576m so far, it is a relative baby among disposals....
...The company’s senior management would be happy if the government sold the stake, especially given the recent controversy over Qinetiq’s success in winning a £16bn ($31bn) project to run the MoD’s military...
...Qinetiq made three notable acquisitions in the US over the year....
...The Qinetiq flotation has been dogged by controversy since it was first announced last month....
...But the IMF has made it clear that they feel the fiscal framework “is being weakened” under Gordon Brown, citing the controversy regarding the redating of the economic cycle last year....
...The offering has raised controversy among some British politicians, who have questioned whether the MoD sold to Carlyle at too low a price....
...On the one hand sit the critics, outraged over the “enrichment” of Carlyle and of Qinetiq’s management since 2002....
...Controversy seems inevitable....
...Qinetiq employees have also shared in the equity appreciation. You can hardly criticise Carlyle for spotting a good investment....
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