Chinese "Businessman" bids for HMS Invincible

[TC27]

Its scrap with no military value...if the Chinese want to buy it as a symbolic demonstration then let them as long as the cheque clears.

We need the money to pay for the replacements.

[PainRack]

So you represent the entire capital market, now?

Right. So in other words, you're still arguing that hey, all business plans must be sensible, well thought out plans or banks will never finance it. RIGHT...........Hey, I got some collatorised subprime mortages on sale. Want them?

The symbolic meaning of you not noticing English power largely disappeared 70 years ago? This is no surprise to the British, since they've been sensibly drawing down their defence budget for decades.

And? Its still funny.

Are you fucking thick enough to think there aren't reasons unrelated to MOG TEH OPIUM WARZ?

No. Other related reasons refer simply to nationalistic pride and a PR stunt by said businessman.

And yet you say there is no business case for a refurbished British carrier?

WTF? Ok. Point out EXACTLY WHERE I CLAIMED THERE IS NO BUSINESS CASE FOR A REFURBISHED BRITISH CARRIER.

The words business plan motivated more for a PR stunt by said businessman as a sop to nationalism is utterly different from no business plan. Or are you suggesting that the Creationism museum has no business plan purely because its motivated by a promote creationism ideology?

Okay Shroom, I'll join in on the herp derp someone bought a boat bandwagon. I'll try to forget that China is a massive, growing economy and that Britain has struggled with money and defence spending in particular for ages, and pretend that this is a mighty slap in the face for OLD BLIGHTY and I dunno white pride or something, and isn't a creative and profitable way of disposing of an unwanted asset.

Right. Of course, the real humour isn't in the slap in the face for Old Blighty but rather the whole private chinese businessman flexing money and buying a defunct symbol of British power bit.

Hey, looky, he even threw in the old sop about improving British/Chinese cultural ties/understanding bit.lol.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It's not very big news. I'd be more interested if the Chinese bought Ark Royal too, because then you could imagine them cobbling together enough parts for one LPH for training, which would mean they have one training carrier group and one training amphib group to prepare the PLAN for serious future power-projection capability.

[Bernkastel]

I would probably see this as a good thing, given that the ship has been useless for a while, if I had some way of knowing that the money would be used in a beneficial way. Given the performance of the MoD though...

Well, at least we''ll be getting something more out of Invincible if this deal passes through.

[Pelranius]

I just don't understand why you would want to use a warship hull as the campus for an international school, unless you have an emphasis on marine studies.

Or is land in southern China really, really expensive?

[madd0ct0r]

Yes.

buying an apartment in a city can involve the savings of an entire family, with a 20-30 year mortgage on top.

It's also self contained for things like generators, theoretically allows it to move to a different port city if needed, and will certainly stick in peoples minds when they're thinking of a new school.


Incidentally - what was so bad about it's design (as a warship) in the first place?

[Sarevok]

Incidentally - what was so bad about it's design (as a warship) in the first place?

It is a VTOL carrier constructed in an era when it was thought Britain can no longer afford American style large aircraft carriers. But ultimately that may have been a misconception. A larger carrier operating conventional aircraft would have had more strike power at a more economic price. General Schatten found an excellent source on the matter, a Royal Navy Historian who had first hand experience designing the Harrier itself. I am linking it here because it offers some fascinating insights on aircraft carrier size, economics and whether advantages of VTOL in naval aviation is largely illusory.

http://navyleag.customer.netspace.net.au/fc_07vtl.htm

[TC27]

Its hard to see Invincible as a defunct symbol of British power - it was built at a time of greater Austerity than now when the Royal Navy was resigned to just being a ASW force in the North Atlantic.

[Ypoknons]

Again? I thought they would have learned from CY Tung's Seawise University. Though technically the problem with that is that it burned down.

[Norade]

Considering James Packer's house costs more than this, its not that big a stretch that a rich dude can buy this using their personal assets. In any event, why should it matter if he borrowed the money from a bank? Not even the banks which engage in the subprime debacle will lend you or I that much money even if we came up with the same business plan. Assuming he isn't some joker, Mr Lam is wealthy and loaded.

This actually made me smile a bit as just recently I was actually looking at what it would take to buy and make money in the ocean and for what I was looking at that would have been the best hull even after the cost of a refit. The issue I had was how would I get my start up capital.

[mr friendly guy]

Considering James Packer's house costs more than this, its not that big a stretch that a rich dude can buy this using their personal assets. In any event, why should it matter if he borrowed the money from a bank? Not even the banks which engage in the subprime debacle will lend you or I that much money even if we came up with the same business plan. Assuming he isn't some joker, Mr Lam is wealthy and loaded.

This actually made me smile a bit as just recently I was actually looking at what it would take to buy and make money in the ocean and for what I was looking at that would have been the best hull even after the cost of a refit. The issue I had was how would I get my start up capital.

Well the cost of the ship + refurbishment is given at 11 million pounds. That converts to less than $35 million AUD. James Packer's new house after renovations is expected to cost $43 million AUD.

[Skgoa]

...and who is James Packer? And even more important: why should I care about the cost of his house?

[Lusankya]

...and who is James Packer? And even more important: why should I care about the cost of his house?

James Packer is the son of deceased Australian media mogul Kerry Packer, and one of the richest men in Australia. The point of mentioning the price of his private residence is to show that there are indeed people in this world rich enough to buy the carrier out of their own money.

[mr friendly guy]

...and who is James Packer? And even more important: why should I care about the cost of his house?

Since you obviously chose (or were too god damn lazy to) NOT to read the parts where it came up (and hence would actually understand it) I will summarise for you.

Painrack mentioned the wealth is power line, yada yada. This was in relation to how Painrack found it symbolic that China is now capable buying a symbol of what used to British power.

Stark in typical fashion said so what? Its not like he had the money up front and he must have borrowed it from a bank (ie a rhetorical trick to downplay the fact that our business man was wealthy to even have such a loan, assuming he didn't have it up front).

I pointed out that having the money up front doesn't seem unbelievable given that the houses of Australian rich dudes cost more than the 11 million pounds to build. I gave the example of James Packer since its been in Australian news lately, and Stark being Australian will have most likely got it.

In fact in the very post above yours it reads

Considering James Packer's house costs more than this, its not that big a stretch that a rich dude can buy this using their personal assets.

Maybe, just maybe, if you bothered to read that part you would have, I don't know, got the gist of the point being raised. Lusankya certainly got the point as she explained it to you a bit more nicer than I did.

[Skgoa]

And if you got your head out of your ass for a second, you might realize that I might have thought that there was more relevance to you choosing this specific person.