Public Ownership and Control in the Private Sector

Abstract

The thesis objectives were (a) to investigate and adduce the possible effects of contemporary public policies and instruments of intervention on management in private sector manufacturing industries and (b) to investigate the methodologies of corporate asset valuation with particular reference to expropriation of private sector corporate assets by the State and the bases of compensatory settlements. Research methods and practice included the study of contemporary primary sources such as public policy indicators, current legislation and associated reports, statements, publications and statistical data; a statistical analysis of private sector takeovers; a survey of professional institutions in the fields of corporate valuation and transfer; study of cases of public sector acquisition with specific regard to the bases of expropriation; examination of the management connotations of public intervention policies and practice and a corporate analysis of a State acquisition. Chapter 1 was concerned with statements of objectives, boundaries and scope of the thesis. Chapters 2 and 3 were designed to provide supportive economic and political studies to give perspective to the formative analyses carried out in the remaining eight chapters. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 contain the specific investigative and conclusory work relating to the first objective (a) and Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 that of the second objective (b): conclusions have been detailed and summarised in Chapters 7, 10 and 11. Because of the nature of the research it is impracticable adequately to summarise here the two main bodies of conclusions in their entirety. With regard to private sector management, it is concluded that fundamental changes in the structures and practice of management are likely to ensue as a consequence of current developments in public ownership and control and that these changes could be both favourable and adverse. The principal conclusions relating to the second objective are that the method of valuation based on stock market capitalisation is potentially inequitable to vendors because the property value of control is not adequately recognised; and that the unilateral fixing of an arbitrary datum period for the purpose of valuation by the State also constitutes a potentially inequitable practice in terms of the interests of vendor and/or purchaser.