the ironically named "fool and his money..."
At the time of Treasury's aquisition of IOMSPC it was owned by a Portuguese bank, Novo Banco who had aquired it as the previous owners had defaulted on debt provided by that bank or its predecessor. They had no interest in owning or operating a small ferry company an were looking to divest their international portfolio.
At the time of purchase the user agreement only went to 2026, so any purchaser would only have the certainty of the PV of the estimated future cash flows of the company to that date, whereas IOMG who have the power to set the terms of the UA, can benefit from the future cashflows for as long as they wish. That is a summary of the Park Partners report to IOMG relating to the aquisition.
To secure the service, the aquisition of IOMSPC at that time for that price was one of the best decisions the IOMG have ever made in my opinion.
Let people who know what they are doing run the company without this continual whinging, moaning and noise, especially from politicians.
Does anyone seriously think that IOMSPC management are not running the company in the best interests of everyone on the Island?
By public service you are advocating full nationalisation, meaning the company would be fully run by the civil service. Which would be a complete, unmitigated disaster. Inefficient, inflexible, bureaucratic, unable to stand up to Unions, unable to make decisions, strikes, reduction in service & higher prices.