Reddit reviews Expected Returns on Major Asset Classes

> You'll get whatever they pay for the shares in cash.

Shareholders will receive the payment in government bonds.

McDonnell has been saying this for some time and it's stated in section 4.1 of Labour's proposal document. [PDF]

Because investors will perceive the government as untrustworthy if they do this, and hostile to investors, I believe it will cause the cost of government borrowing to rise - they'll have to pay more for their borrowing in future.

For this reason the price of the newly-issued bonds must surely fall - the price of bonds vary so that the yield of their coupon matches the issuer's current borrowing rate. See Ilmanen's chapter on bonds - it's in the "lite" edition of his book which can be read for free if you install Amazon's Kindle app.

Another way of looking at it is, who would want bonds issued by a government who are happy to sell you an asset one day and then renege on the deal and give you something else for your money instead?

I believe in principle that this kind of infrastructure should be government-owned, but I think the international markets will dislike this.

I've read it suggested that, because it would indeed be against international treaties to expropriate these shares, only the shareholdings of British residents or citizens could be taken, after Labour have been dragged through the courts. I don't think this would reassure the international markets much, but it would obviously be worse for people like OP.