Time was an owner would sell off his business only if it were loss-making. Or, if he were in deep financial trouble, he would auction off a healthily profitable business to save himself, even if such a step would be tantamount to killing the goose laying the golden eggs.
Still, that is more understandable than today�s growing practice where owners, though not financially strapped, will sell off profitable businesses, for no other reason than to unlock short term value, with scant regard to the blood and sweat that had been poured into building up the value of those businesses.
Perhaps it is because ownership of businesses, apart from small businesses, has become remote, with none of the attachment that the original business builders felt for the companies they founded. After all, how much attachment can a modern shareholder feel for the few lots of shares he owns in a listed company, especially when there are no share certificates to give him tangible reminders of that ownership, only monthly statements from the CDP to substantiate that he has so many shares in that national electronic repository.
Perhaps this growing detachment best explains why OCBC and GEH can so coolly allow the Robinson board to lop off the retail arm of Robinson and Co, even though this is as good as taking the soul out of the company and will probably lead to its delisting, thus removing yet another household name from the Singapore Exchange, if not from Singapore.
Perhaps the trade sale that has been proposed will be to a buyer determined to continue flying the Robinson flag. But is that likely? A buyer that is also a competitor would probably find it more logical and convenient to side-line the Robinson name, or even see to its demise. If Metro or Isetan turns out to be the buyer, will one or the other be so generous as to use Robinson as a prefix to its own name? Of the three big departmental store names from pre-independent Singapore, Whiteaways Laidlaw has passed into distant memory while John Little plays very much second fiddle to Robinson.
Perhaps I am showing cultural cringe (and my age) to wax nostalgic about stores founded by our past colonial masters but I think not. Robinsons is very much Singaporean, in the way it has settled down and grown local roots. Its �Sale Worth Waiting For� is as much part of local lexicon as �Don�t Play Play�.
Perhaps nostalgia and grand old names, however well they have assimilated into the local soil, have no place in fast changing Singapore, especially when tycoons are counting the cost of money down to last X-decimal point. The Robinson shopping experience must be slaughtered to allow directors and management to show their efficient management of capital.
But what about the staff of Robinsons who have slogged loyally and long to make the store a byword for service, winning national service awards year in and out? Do they count for nothing in this game of dollars and cents?
I know the Robinson board�s statement to the SGX took care to stress that directors have this coterie very much in mind and they place �considerable importance on safeguarding� their interests and welfare which would be incorporated in the sale process.
But what is the reality from the perspective of the buyer? If it is a competitor, one reason for buying must be to improve its own position, not perpetuate Robinsons� superiority. Which must mean rationalization and retrenchment; if not immediately, then after a decent lapse. Soon enough, money men would begin spinning that duplication of premises, inventory and staff will not deliver that 12 or 15 per cent return needed for a highly leveraged buyer.
What happened when OCBC and UOB bought Keppel Bank and OUB respectively is a sad harbinger of what the middle-aged well-spoken sales people at Robinsons could expect. The higher the price the buyer pays, the more impatient he will be to get results. And the faster the axing would begin.
It isn�t too late for the directors of Robinsons, OCBC and GEH to show they dare say nuts to NUTS (no u-turn syndrome) and that the interests and welfare of long serving staff really matter.
After all, the sale of Robinsons retail operations hasn�t been signed and delivered!