National Grid Share Discussion Threads

[utyinv] 11/4/2016 18:08

GJ2


LOL! :)

[gj2] 11/4/2016 18:05

Pierre :
On that basis, I must own up to being an "unfortunate" of 15 years standing ! The challenges keep increasing, but I still enjoy the odd panic. This board keep me sane.

[utyinv] 11/4/2016 17:59

Pierre,

re:3903 of 3904

National Control and the Area Control Centres; let's say you have to know the system well, stay cool, professional and focused, especially at times when things start to go pear-shaped :)

[pierre oreilly] 11/4/2016 11:13

Heights/voltages/weather ... i think your boss was right! i'm sure there were compensations though.

I always thought the ones who really earned their crust at ngc were the overhead linesmen and the unfortunate engineers at national control. Someone once said nobody is agnostic when facing death or controlling the grid.

[neddo] 11/4/2016 10:34

p o, 400kv, we got in trouble quite often with the boss, he told someone that he had to be lenient with the linesman, as they were all mad, he said , they had to be to do that job, ?

[pierre oreilly] 11/4/2016 10:10

Potentially more dangerous being next to 275kV rather than inside after a lunchtime binge, but having said that, a bloke on his first day in our office fell off his chair after his lunchtime session.

[bountyhunter] 09/4/2016 13:09

...common ground there :~)

[neddo] 09/4/2016 12:40

ha ha , don't know about that, we had other ways of knocking ourselves about.we knew every pub , that was out of the way.

[bountyhunter] 09/4/2016 11:04

...don't envy you doing that, but I bet you are a lot healthier than those of us who sat at our desks in the city!

[neddo] 09/4/2016 10:44

I was an overhead linesman for 34 years, good old day except for the winters bloody freezing.

[pierre oreilly] 08/4/2016 16:54

One of Stuart Dusckworth's lot? Think he's a maths teacher at a girls school these days.

[utyinv] 08/4/2016 16:14

GJ2,

Yes sorry now SIPs max is £150/month but that's only in the last year or so.

Pierre, I too spent many days at Park Street, GSM! :)

[pierre oreilly] 08/4/2016 10:46

Redart, i got the max i could as a pi, and i remember it wasn't worth bothering with the allocation. But I think employees could buy lots of shares at a discount (separate from share save or other schemes). But it was a long time ago and my records or memory doesn't go back that far!

Not sure if I've offended someone, unintentional if so.

[redartbmud] 08/4/2016 09:14

A lot of non-investors were encouraged to buy. The amounts were pitifully low, per person. At the first opportunity, they took the money and ran.

[noidea] 08/4/2016 09:04

Working in Bankside House at the time I bought the maximum I could but many colleagues in the Finance department did not buy any as they thought it was to risky !

[pierre oreilly] 08/4/2016 08:31

I was in park St at the time of floatation, overlooking the globe being built iirc. I was a supplier to ng so didn't get any perks like free and cheap shares. I approached a couple of employees I was working with to see if I could fund their cheap share allocation and split the profit on selling a few days later with me taking any losses, all informally of course. No takers though! They went to a decent premium straight istr.

[redartbmud] 08/4/2016 07:34

If it is any consolation, I was working for a provincial stockbroker at the time of privatisation. They were not rushing to advise investors to hold or indeed buy the utilities at the time, as far as I can remember.

[veryniceperson] 07/4/2016 23:32

Reading some of these posts you have done very well. Good on ya.

[gj2] 07/4/2016 22:41

OMG - a trip down memory lane ! Worked for the big "C" in Guildford at the time of vesting/privatisation, and still kicking myself for only putting in £40/month initially (edit : and this was partly due to other/older people calling them "noddy shares" because they were not expected to be listed; instead they were to be valued 4 times a year by specialist team, with your shares being sold at this price if a matching buyer could be found - endedit). Soon raised that to the max.

Agree with all the above, but would add that the SIPs now allow £150/month, sharesaves £500/month. Osborne has been enthusiastic about raising some fringe benefits !

[utyinv] 07/4/2016 21:14

Pierre,

There was no matching in the sharesave. You had the option to save for 3 or 5 years, thereafter you either took the money saved plus the bonus allocated to the sharesave which depended on how long a term you opted for and the amount saved per month or took the option to buy the shares at 80% of the market price when starting the sharesave.

Matching is sometimes given by Companies that use SIP (share incentive plan). However NG started offering staff a SIP incentive but there wasn't any matching. Shares in the SIP were and are purchased at normal market value but the money used from your income to buy the shares were tax free and NI free. The max per month even today on SIPs is £125/ month.

[utyinv] 07/4/2016 20:33

M100,

You are right. Grid was owned by the 12 Area Boards at vesting on 30 March 1990. At vesting Grid wasn't floated on the stock exchange. However, they were valued based on the Area Board float price of £2.32, thereafter a system was used to value the stock outside of flotation. The share value was valued at £13+ before flotation. So when NG was floated in 1995 for £2.20 ish they recalculated the allocation of shares that staff had by a multiple of 6 giving an average 37.8p / share.

[utyinv] 07/4/2016 20:17

Neddo,

If talking about NG Electricity first share save was equivalent to 37.8p (after re-calculation at floatation). Max that could be invested then was £150/month. Gov changed that to £250/month year later. Second share save was 51.7 p. Not many took advantage of the share save as in those days it was a relatively new thing and many people didn't trust or have the money to invest. Believe it or not, the majority were sceptical on the idea of share saves.