Isobel
Well-Known Member
BlackRock UK Property Fund announced yesterday that Premier Marinas has been sold to the charity for undisclosed sum: http://www.ybw.com/news-from-yachti...e-wellcome-trust-for-undisclosed-amount-10999
Premier Marinas sold to the Wellcome Trust
- Thread starter Isobel
- Start date
Halo
Well-Known Member
The Welcome Trust is a fantastic organisation. Not sure what they are like at running marinas though.
Searush
Well-Known Member
What's the reasoning behind that acquisition then?
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
They'll earn money and use it to cure cancer.
laika
Well-Known Member
Brighton marina has a bunch of potential research subjects which no-one will miss...
Daedelus
Well-Known Member
Yngmar
Well-Known Member
Save the world by paying your pump-out fees.
Searush
Well-Known Member
if it was that profitable a business, why were Blackrock so willing to sell?
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Why is any business ever sold?
lw395
Well-Known Member
I think the citizens of the Green Republic of Brighton are investing far more in drug research than the Wellcome Foundation...
KenMcCulloch
Well-Known Member
A regular poster here may possibly be able to offer an informed opinion. I will PM him.
Amulet
Well-Known Member
The Wellcome Trust is a biomedical charity. An implication of one post (if I understood correctly) in the thread was that it is spending your tax money - it is not.
My guesses as to what is going on (could be wrong):
The organisation has two parts. Its charitable wing funds biomedical research. It is massive - I think the biggest biomedical charity in the world. Its investment wing looks after its portfolio of investments which earn the money for its research. By law the two are not connected, i.e., it cannot invest in something because it relates to its research goals. The investment wing must convince its trustees that it has diligently sought to invest to maximise the income available to spend on research. It is implausible that the acquisition of Premier Marinas has anything to do with their research (unless they plan to close them down and use the facilities for research!). I can therefore only imagine that the investment wing thinks they are a good way to make money - which surprises me. If this is the case, they will not really be "run" by the Wellcome Trust - they will be run as businesses.
There have been some slighly hybrid Trust acquisitions. For example the investment branch has been allowed to buy property adjacent to research facilities in order to ensure that its development doesn't have strategic implications for those facilities, but I can't see this being the case here.
The Wellcome Trust was formed from the estate of Henry Wellcome who build the pharmaceutical giant "The Wellcome Foundation". The will required that the profits of that company be spent on biomedical research. About 1980 the Trust got permission to sell shares in the Wellcome Foundation and dirversify its investments. The Wellcome Foundation has disappeared in the many pharma mergers and reshuffles.
Someone will no doubt tell me that I have got the details of this wrong!
My guesses as to what is going on (could be wrong):
The organisation has two parts. Its charitable wing funds biomedical research. It is massive - I think the biggest biomedical charity in the world. Its investment wing looks after its portfolio of investments which earn the money for its research. By law the two are not connected, i.e., it cannot invest in something because it relates to its research goals. The investment wing must convince its trustees that it has diligently sought to invest to maximise the income available to spend on research. It is implausible that the acquisition of Premier Marinas has anything to do with their research (unless they plan to close them down and use the facilities for research!). I can therefore only imagine that the investment wing thinks they are a good way to make money - which surprises me. If this is the case, they will not really be "run" by the Wellcome Trust - they will be run as businesses.
There have been some slighly hybrid Trust acquisitions. For example the investment branch has been allowed to buy property adjacent to research facilities in order to ensure that its development doesn't have strategic implications for those facilities, but I can't see this being the case here.
The Wellcome Trust was formed from the estate of Henry Wellcome who build the pharmaceutical giant "The Wellcome Foundation". The will required that the profits of that company be spent on biomedical research. About 1980 the Trust got permission to sell shares in the Wellcome Foundation and dirversify its investments. The Wellcome Foundation has disappeared in the many pharma mergers and reshuffles.
Someone will no doubt tell me that I have got the details of this wrong!
Amulet
Well-Known Member
Of course, if I had followed the web link before writing - it would have saved me speculating, but I think I got it right.