Own a Piece of the U.K. Grid
By Jim Nelson
June 9, 2009
Last week, I told you about a semimonopoly in the water business. Water, as you probably know, is a favorite theme of ours here at Penny Sleuth. It’s a commodity that most take for granted, but someday soon, will be a huge issue for billions of people. Actually, it already is in many places around the world.
Today, I might have something even better for you. This one isn’t based on one specific commodity. Although, it does have that element too. Instead, it’s based on a unique situation in our English-speaking ally across the pond.
Before I get into this specific circumstance, and why it’s about to make you a boatload of money, I have to detail what a semimonopoly is.
As you know, monopolies are one company, or organization, that dominates an industry — free from competition. In the first few years of the 20th Century, the U.S. made these illegal. The story, however, doesn’t stop there…
As you might have guessed, a one-size-fits-all law doesn’t usually work. There are always exceptions to the rule.
I could spend hours listing many of these exceptions. But the main ones (at least, the ones that you can profit from) are utilities. The only time there’s competition in the major utilities — water, gas, electric — is when a region opens up. Mergers and acquisitions are common in these industries. But having two competing interests in the same region is nearly unheard of.
Since these utility companies don’t own the entire industry, however, they aren’t considered monopolies. Even the few that are large enough — like the one I’m about to share with you — are given basically a free pass by the government. And that’s not just in the U.S. Most of the Western world shares similar rules and exceptions to the rules.
I recently found a company that has natural gas and electricity operations in both the U.S. and Great Britain. It is a true semimonopoly. In fact, one could argue it is a true monopoly in the U.K.
It’s the largest supplier of natural gas in the Northeast U.S. A quarter of every watt of electricity in Manhattan comes from this international player. Over one million Long Island residents get their electricity from the company. The list goes on and on. But the real story is its U.K. operations…
You see, there’s a significant difference between the U.S. electricity grid and the one in Great Britain. The United States is a huge land mass. There are over 300 million people — some separated by more than 3,000 miles — in the continental U.S. The U.K. is about the size of Kansas, but it has 22 times more people. This creates a significantly different playing field.
The U.S. has a series of grids. There’s no such thing as a national electric grid. In the U.K., there is. Regulating a grid the carries electricity to over 60 million people is a difficult thing to do. While regulations are in place, the government of Great Britain handed operational control over to one company. This company also happens to be a major player in the industry.
This sets up a situation where control of the industry, as well as, profits generated within the industry is handle by one company. It has the power to accept or deny new competition. In return for this status, it also has the responsibility to make sure the grid doesn’t go down. If it does, the entire U.K. nation goes down — including Scotland and Wales.
Obviously, this unique situation is working well for the company. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, the company brought in over GB£15.7 billion. That’s up from GB£11.5 billion the year before that. It’s almost like this company didn’t realize there was a recession going on.
There’s so much more to this story I can’t go into because of space. But, I am planning on giving my Lifetime Income Report readers the full scoop later today. Because you are a loyal Penny Sleuth reader, I’ll let you in ahead of time. If you check out this report on another opportunity I’m offering these readers, I’ll make sure you receive this semimonopoly opportunity the minute current subscribers do.
Sincerely,
Jim Nelson
