Urenco move: Shadow over next big state sell-off
A deal for the UK's share in the uranium
powerhouse may reap £3bn. But some fear our
secrets may fall into the wrong hands
MARK LEFTLY Author Biography Wednesday 09 October 2013
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/urenco-move-shadow-over-next-big-state-selloff-8867500.html>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/urenco-move-shadow-over-next-big-state-selloff-8867500.html
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=22157&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
Abdul Qadeer Khan does not enjoy the extra
security that has been imposed on him by
Pakistan's defence ministry, which is worried
about another Osama bin Laden-style raid on its
territory. "It is like death that comes
uninvited," Dr Khan has said of the battery of
120 AK rifle-bearing security personnel who stand at his side.
But that's the price of smuggling the nuclear
secrets that gave Pakistan the bomb. Time
magazine described him as "the merchant of
menace," though Dr Khan now disowns an admission
in 2004 that his network sent nuclear weapons
technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
If the unions have their way, Dr Khan's face
could soon replace Margaret Thatcher as the dark
image of their great ideological enemy,
privatisation. In the 1970s, Dr Khan worked for
Urenco, the British, Dutch and German uranium
enrichment group, until he fled to Pakistan with top-secret blueprints.
Today, the government is keen to cash in on its
one-third stake of Urenco in a sale that is set
to raise £10bn. The other shareholders are German
energy companies RWE and Eon, while the Dutch state holds the balance.
The Treasury could end up with more than £3bn,
around the same amount that the Royal Mail
flotation will raise when it debuts on the stock exchange on Friday.
That deal has caused an almighty ruckus with
staff and union leaders, who are voting on strike
action, while the shadow Business Secretary Chuka
Umunna has accused the government of undervaluing a prized asset.
The Urenco sale is further off but even more
incendiary, raising fears that without
public-sector safeguards more nuclear secrets could end up with rogue states.
The news that the company has hired advisers from
Rothschild to advise on its options is probably
the push that was needed to finally get this long-mooted auction under way.
Headquartered in the semi-rural Buckinghamshire
village of Stoke Poges, where, appropriately
enough given its atomic plot, Goldfinger was
partly shot, Urenco has a 31 per cent share of
the world's uranium enrichment market.
This provides the fuel for nuclear power
utilities and Urenco has enrichment plants in the
US and the three investor countries, including one in Capenhurst, Cheshire.
"It's a ridiculous idea," according to the GMB
national secretary for energy Gary Smith, who
earlier this week complained to The Independent
of the prospect of the Chinese investing in the
nuclear new-build programme. "We're flogging off
precious nuclear assets instead of developing a
strategy around nuclear. It's absolute madness."
The MP who represents Sellafield, Jamie Reed,
questions the notion of a sale given the problems
that he has witnessed at the Cumbria site.
Nuclear Management Partners, which includes the
FTSE 100 engineer Amec, was handed a five-year
extension to clean up Sellafield last week,
despite a catalogue of problems that saw the
group fall behind schedule on 12 out of 14 major
projects last year. He says: "These are questions
of genuine national interest and that should be
the guiding principle here … privatisation right
now will surely be affected by the consequences
of the Fukushima disaster on the market place."
The last Labour government looked at a Urenco
sale, but it is understood that then-environment
secretary Ed Miliband doubted the rationale.
A Whitehall source who would never be confused
with "Red Ed" argues a sale is "absolutely
barking mad". This is not because of national
security, given that intellectual property is
likely to be ring-fenced "by a 50ft barricade"
within what is known as the Enrichment Technology Company.
A buyer, be it a state-backed fund like
Singapore's GIC or a conglomerate such as
Mitsubishi, would not, in theory, have access to
the technology it owned. Instead, the owner would
be guaranteed a source of revenue in what is
likely to be a growing market as countries from
the UK to China look to nuclear to plug their energy gaps.
"This is classic Treasury paranoia about getting
cash today to bring forward spending," adds the
source, arguing that future revenue would easily
top the £3bn a sale would garner. "Why would you
sell this now? I've got a horrible feeling
they're going to leave quite a lot of value on
the table – and it barely costs the taxpayer a penny [to keep]."
The transaction will also get messy with each
shareholder having its own advisers – Rothschild
is looking after the company's board. The Dutch
government confirmed its intention to sell in May.
An industry source argues, then, that Urenco's
1,600 staff shouldn't have any immediate concerns
over what a sale would mean for jobs. He says a
sale is unlikely until next year, while the
Government is alert enough to realise that it
"still has to work out what sort of governance
needs to be put in place given the sensitivities".
The last thing the Coalition needs in the
build-up to the General Election are its plans
being depicted as creating a wave of wrathful new Khans.
Privatisations in the pipeline
Royal Mail
Shares in Royal Mail are set to start official
trading on Tuesday in a sell-off that's expected
to net £3.3bn for the Treasury's coffers.
Lloyds and RBS
The state has already sold 6 per cent of its
stake in Lloyds for £3.2bn. It still owns 33 per
cent and 81 per cent of RBS, a legacy of the
state bailouts in the financial crisis.
Semi-privatisations
An auction is under way for a £400m contract to
manage the Defence Infrastructure Organisation,
which looks after the MoD's estate. It is also
trying to sell a contract to run the Defence
Equipment and Support, which buys the forces'
tanks and missiles, while the US firm Bristow is
set to take over helicopter search and rescue from the RAF and Navy from 2015.
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Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political power they wield?
There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony
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