Dumping the Ballast or Hiding It In The Shed?
One of my correspondents makes an interesting point in this whole Power8 plant disposal project that I do not think too many folks have noticed. As is typical with him, he focuses on finances as a construction project manager of some experience with such things.
As he notes, Russell Hotten of The Telegraph states that GKN is believed to have offered 200 million euros to buy the Filton facility outright-about $290 million at today's exchange rate. So far, so good.
However, in the 2006 balance sheet for EADS, its UK factories are valued at some 3.2 billion euros-almost $4.6 billion USD at current rates.
Helluva deal, right? He likens it to selling the seed corn and speculates that it has a connection with whatever GKN had to agree to in the way of job guarantees at Filton.
Der Spiegel calls this process "dumping the ballast". The disinterested observer might say it's more like hiding it underneath pretty wrapping paper in the Airbus cargo hold.
posted by Robert Luedeman semi retired attorney and amp mechanic @ 7:47 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
One thing is certain: the Europeans have passed on an astonishing, once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity to get the hated anglo saxons to do all their dirty work, and then be able to blame it on "les Americans"!
Could even the BBC have come up with a better scenario?
True...I am a fan of analogies and I can't quite decide which one I like better, the stranger who doesn't dance with the fat girl and her cousins have to take up the slack and make a virtue out of necessity, or the crooked faro dealer who unaccountably lets the rube from the east walk away from the table with his poke intact.
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