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Thanks. I will bow to your superior wisdom in these matters. I can see that the share buy back is as good as or better than cancelling if the share options & bonuses would have been paid out at the same level anyway. Guess I'm too used to greedy AIM boards just using it as an excuse to give themselves even bigger payoffs.
Kat-079, not sure you've thought about that much... If they bought the shares back and cancelled them, then issued the vested inventive shares to employees as they have done in previous years, then there would be the same number of shares in issue today? You also need to read note 24 - share based payments - in the annual report, as it the shares aren't given away by any means...
Also, if they paid a £10m dividend rather than buyback the 566k shares then right now the share price would be 40p lower (43.5m shares / £877m market cap - £10m dividend). You'd have a ~23p extra dividend, but lower share price...
You then also have to factor in that 566k shares would have been pressuring the share price, so it's highly likely it would still be sitting under resistance at £18
As for letting shares drift, would you be happy buying today at £12 and then waking up tomorrow to a £18 takeover offer?
For long term holders, a buyback at these levels make loads of sense. A lower number of shares in issue = a higher share price in future years. The ROI should end up way higher than a 1% dividend yield at present levels...
Have to disagree, the shares on offer to the staff are a reward for reaching targets. Setting up operations overseas is not cheap and are potentially fraught with difficulties. Having good staff incentivized to perform well is critical to successful performance and retaining staff. With regard to the buyback the sp was undervalued, with surplus cash a lways a good time to buy.
With regard to the number of shares in issue, I would be happy with a share split, say five for one. That's down to the CEO and the board. they know what they are doing, so happy to leave it to them.
Share buybacks are fine for LTI if the shares ae being cancelled. Is that true here? Not so great if they are being held in treasury to be distributed for employee share options or for executive bonuses. Personally would have preferred an increased dividend or let the SP drift a bit longer so we could buy cheaper shares ourselves.
Yep I'm eagerly awaiting the prospectus. Re. Share buyback quantities, they've purchased 566k shares in the 58 trading days since the buyback commenced, so just under 10k per day. At that rate they would buy back just over 5% of the company per annum. Given the ~85% institutional holding here that is massive.
This company likes to issue news on Wednesdays. I think we will see the Main market prospectus issued tomorrow which should provide some useful/interesting info.
I would tend to agree but they have seriously upped the quantities over the last few days, so what would explain that? I also struggle to see what else they might do with all the cash. They're not acquisitive and Morgan seems to prefer to roll out organic growth quite cautiously. There are hundreds of millions available, with more coming in thick and fast. In a highish interest rate environment a big cash pile is ok but I'd rather see buybacks, especially when the shares are still quite cheap. I don't see why they can't spend the windfall from interest income on buybacks and use other profit and existing cash to fund growth.
I don't think their heart is in these buybacks, they should have bought far more at the £17 level. They had a 2 month window to snap up shares at that price, before the SP took off.
They are making exactly £20m per quarter in interest (2bil X 4% ÷ 4). There are 65 working days in a quarter and 20m ÷ 65 = ~ 300k. So with the sp at 2000 they can buy 15,000 shares a day indefinitely from the interest income alone. If they do that, hard to see the SP doing anything other than keep going up...
Nice to see Swedbank through 3%, they've added ~250k shares since the end of March which was likely what propelled the share price higher. Likely wanting to get to their position size before facing more international competition. Also notable that Alpha have bought back around 150k shares this month so far, a significant step up from Feb & March.
Surprised that they haven't published a timetable though? Based on Breedon's move from AIM to premium listing last April, the prospectus was published around 7 days before AIM trading was cancelled, so we should expect something some time next week.
Date for premium move now provided - 2/5/24.
Considering the move to the Main market is next month I’m hoping we get the timetable for the move sometime this week. Then we have the Agm on 1st May. Certainly a lot of news to come.
Shearclass, I think you've shamed the market makers into narrowing the spread. Wise up 5% in the last month compared to 27% for Alpha.
Just ticked up to £21.50 on the bid with the actual sell price £21.60 so a lot closer now, ask also moved up so starting to look very positive. GL all
Currently pushing the days high again so would expect a move up.
Also agree about the false spread. Been occuring frequently for the last few days now. The advertised bid shows as £21 currently but can get a sell quote for £21.55
Once again worth highlighting the false spread on show - it's £21.46 to sell yet no market maker is offering more than £20.80 on the advertised bid... One regulation that would very quickly fix tactics like this is a maximum spread for companies with a market cap over £100m, sitting with a fake 3.5% spread is just nonsense. Nevermind, a great week here with significant buying pressure, would love to see £23 go before we move to the premium listing.
Invested at 3.30pm today hopefully at right time
The share register has been update for the latest quarter to 29/3/24. A number of new institutional investors have appeared holding more than 1% of the shares notably Amarti, Artemis, State Street, Axa and Berenburg. Looks like institutional interest is expanding…
Yep, should just be the start of the re-rating, shares first hit £23 back in September 2021, when the alternative banking division had only just formally launched. Huge latent value present here...
It's hard to believe it barely moved for the past two and a half years. I only hope the wait is over.
There’s still big demand for the shares. Even though the official quote is 20.20 - 20.50 you can sell @ 20.38 ( way over mid)and you have to pay 20.497 to buy. With continuous news flow over the next 4 weeks with the Agm and main listing timetable to come, not to mention new brokers onboarding and share buy backs ,the re-rating should continue at pace.
Certainly was, haven't seen that many delayed trades go through after the bell, certainly a massive tick up in volume, explains the decent tick up today and bodes well going forward. Someone was certainly accumulating in volume today. GL all
Some serious trades going through today!
I was thinking the same, it's actually slightly cheap to buy then sell right now! Could this be about to take off, deffo seems like the MM's are desperate for shares IMO