Will privatisation make PSUs profitable?
Almost always, yes. When government privatises, it scrutinises prospective buyers to make sure that they have the money and the skills to run the business successfully. Government is more interested in seeing a public sector unit survive and grow, than in the amount of money paid by the buyers. Government wants to ensure that well-financed buyers have the skill, financing and incentives to make a public sector unit grow. So for the vast number of public sector units, here and around the world, privatisation has led to increased economic strength. In the rare cases where a public sector unit had fundamental design flaws, new owners can often use the public sector unit’s resources to shift into a new, different and profitable business.
