On Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:42:50 +0100, Lüko Willms
wrote:

Am 05.01.2012 15:39, schrieb Graham Nye:
In the UK, shares of state-owned companies ("nationalised", in our
terminology) aren't traded on a stock exchange. All shares are
retained by the state and none are sold.

Only if the state decides to sell the company ("privatise" it) will
the shares be released for trading in a stock exchange.

or selling chunks of shares directly to an "investor".

Did they put the shares of British Rail up for sale on the stock
exchange? Not as far as I know.

There weren't any. British Rail was a trading title of British
Railways which was a statutary corporation not involving share
capital. What was sold were the assets which had been transferred into
the holding of several companies.
snip