Forums Forums Local News Liver Building Sold

Did anyone know the Liver Building has been sold ?

£48 million ! Needless to say, it's been sold to a foreign company, from Luxembourg so we might be leaving Europe but Europe seem to be dissecting us bit by bit anyway and getting a stronger foothold on a regular basis.

A company only founded in 2006, so no great record of success yet.

We simply don't seem to be able to keep anything iconic for ourselves and it makes me angry.

https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/ne...Wednesda_2017-02-08&utm_medium=email

So damm annoying that Granny! An iconic building means so much to Liverpool surely someone or conglomerate nearer home could have bought it and made good use of it. Alot of money I know. As you say we can't escape the beggers!!

A game of worldwide monopoly played with real money by those who have it. I shudder to think how much of UK has been sold off to foreign investors etc.

everything we own is to be sold to foreign companies,i stopped watching football 20yrs ago makes me sick,the uk makes me mad with all the clowns in charge another 50yrs and it will be called something else i bet,that's if you will be allowed to think and look out of the window

"We" didn't own it in the first place. It was owned by a London-based company, which in its turn is owned by shareholders from all over the world, including - no doubt - some people and companies based in Liverpool. It may even be more 'owned' by us now via our pension funds! When we say a company is 'British' or 'American' or 'French' it is pretty well meaningless. They are owned by people in almost every country.

In the case of Luxembourg, this is particularly true. I doubt the company originated there or exists there in any meaningful way except as a way of avoiding tax. It will probably have its head office there, but only legally so. There will be no working office. It may well be one of several thousand companies 'managed' by one or two people who do no more than forward mail to the appropriate recipients for an annual fee.

It is entirely possible that the company that owns it now has set up a company in Luxembourg and wholly owned by it, to which it has 'sold' the building! Companies do this with assets to save paying tax. It is perfectly legal!

Ownership of assets like the Liver Building is almost impossible to define. If makes no difference whatsoever to you and me who 'owns' it, and it is pretty pointless complaining about it changing ownership. They can't take it away anyway. It is listed so they can't demolish it or change its character, and having shelled out £50 million, are hardly going to fail to maintain it. It will probably run as it is run now, being rented out to anyone who chooses to have an office there.

Of course,right again Ex. Silly me.

It simply means that revenue raised from office space, tourism or anything else, will now be feeding the coffers of a foreign company. Liverpool council were considering buying it too.

I wonder if Birkenhead Town Hall will suffer the same fate. My goodness, I really hope so !!

Followed by Wallasey Town Hall, Liverpool Cathedrals, Westminster Abbey, St. Pauls Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Balmoral, Sandringham estate, National Trust, English Heritage, .... the lot. What does it matter anyway. Lets give away our pride, our heritage and our patriotism. Who the F needs or wants it anyway ?

Well said Granny..think we're the last generation that really cares about all this...Think younger generation will just want to get through life as best they can with a changing world and what's important to us won't seem that to them.I could be wrong and it may well go the other way with an upsurge in pride and patriotism, could be too late then.

I wonder how much tax this company will pay in this country?

I don't think you understand my point, which is that companies are not national entities. My fault for not being clearer I expect

The idea of a 'foreign' company or indeed a British one is a nonsense. They are owned by other companies, investment banks, individuals, pension funds, local councils, hospitals, newspapers, venture capitalists, and a host of other people and organisations all of whom directly or indirectly possess shares in them. Moreover, these investors are strewn across the globe in almost any country you can mention. Often ownership is traded in microseconds by computers buying and selling shares at mind-buggering speed on the various electronic trading floors around the world.

When it comes to big money, it is meaningless to ascribe a nationality to any company. Luxembourg, in particular, is a well-known tax haven. A tiny undistinguished upstairs office there, attended only a few days a week can be the 'Head Office' of tens of thousands of companies, many of them with no other presence in Luxembourg at all! Thus the 'foreign company from Luxembourg' who have bought this building could well be largely British owned, whereas the one selling it could well be majority owned by - say - Microsoft!

I doubt very much whether Brexit comes into this at all, by the way.

If you are interested in who owns what and how companies fiddle their tax with the active assistance of governments, may I recommend "TREASURE ISLANDS: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World" by Nicholas Shaxson. It's available on Kindle at £5.49. Very readable, and if what goes on doesn't make your eyes pop I will be very surprised.