We would love to hear your thoughts about our site and services, please take our survey here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
Harworth directors ignite hot property
Jim Armitage
Sunday September 26 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
Share
Save
It is not entirely foolproof, but following directors when they buy shares in their company is rarely a bad move. That is what draws the eye to Harworth, the property group that specialises in buying old industrial sites, cleaning them up and pushing them through the planning process to be used for homes, warehouses or workplaces. Its preferred hunting ground is the Midlands, northwest and northeast England.
Regularly overlooked by investors, its name came on the radar recently when three directors dipped into their pockets to buy stock worth nearly £100,000.
One was new chief executive Lynda Shillaw, who this month completed a review of the company and decided to double its size in five to seven years.
Given that she then made a £30,000 share purchase, she clearly has faith.
Veteran investors may recall that Harworth emerged from the ashes of UK Coal, the doomed, privatised coalmines once owned by the late tycoon Richard Budge.
Harworth was the part of the business that owned the land. It has been performing well since the worst of the pandemic, with a chunky 15 per cent return in the first half of the year, partly due to its focus on warehouses, which boomed through the online shopping surge in the work-from-home era.
But that six-month period was nothing unusual. Harworth has a decent track record of steering land through the planning process and either selling it on or developing it itself.
Shillaw has declared her doubling of the portfolio will be driven by building more warehouses from a rate in recent years of 200,000 sq ft a year to 800,000, while growing its land bank — currently 15,000 acres.
Hedge fund billionaire Nick Roditi, who learned his trade at the knee of George Soros, upped his stake at the depth of the lockdown last year when the shares were at rock bottom and is sitting on a tidy paper profit. His London & Amsterdam Trust is now the biggest shareholder with a quarter of the business — a little more than the Pension Protection Fund, a legacy of the UK Coal collapse.
Sponsored
A vehicle of Trafford Centre developer John Whittaker holds 15 per cent.
Investing beside such dominant shareholders may put off some people, as will the fact that Harworth’s shares have already had a good run up this year. You might end up having to stay in for a while to see gains.
But with the shares still trading at a discount to the forecast value of its developments, it’s worth following bosses’ footsteps and buying for the long term.
Essentially the article promotes the idea of investing in companies when their directors invest which the CEO has done recently , it also talks about other big investors in the company . The article speculates that the forecasted value of developments is greater than the value of the shares and that it’s worth investing for the longer term.
Am a big supporter and recently increased holding. Would be great if someone could post the article so I could read it. Many thanks
Tipped in The Sunday Times today which should bring in new investors. Article also identifies the individuals behind the largest shareholdings.
I reckon the rise might be more to do with Michael Gove being appointed housing secretary. Industrial/ business parks will probably get pushed through quicker.
Fantastic recommendation in IC. £2 north and personally I think even this is VERY conevative
Just tipped in IC plus some directors buying at £1.62 so expect upward momentum this month
Staggered that this did not go up after such good results. Think the company needs to do more and better investor/city briefings
Agreed, my wife and I normally holiday once a year in South Africa but obviously not at the moment. We have a lot of friends there who say things have really deteriorated since our last visit with food shortages even in prosperous areas, power cuts and huge levels of governmental corruption. I think you are right to be cautious.
Cheers, yes, I have done well with TGA but I have decided not to put all my eggs in one basket there as I was tempted to. I have a nagging doubt about it being too good to be true (the apparent returns there). I think this stock will improve over the next week or two, I expected the net asset value to improve as it did and there was the carrot of it doubling in 5-7 years so good value here.
I haven’t posted this before but I was interested last week, I hold shares in DSCV on a PE of about 35 and shares in TGA on an apparent PE of 1 but both increased the share price by 20% in the same timeframe, just goes to show how difficult it is to spot value in the market.
Thanks for your reply. As surprised share price has not responded. Firmly of the view that it eventually will as company grows and with annual 10 per cent increase in dividend. The other company I am involved with is Watkin Jones in the property area which is also doing very well. I noticed your interest in South African coal. Wish I had got involved in that earlier in the year ! I invested quite heavily in anglo pacific not least for the dividend every three months but the chief executive is leaving who was the driver behind the company in recent years so have reduced my exposure. Think I will continue to grow my investment with Harworth
Stunning results and increase in dividend. Great plans for company. Staggered so under radar
I am looking forward to tomorrow’s results, I reckon they will be more positive than the market expects as industrial development land is getting to the stage where it’s more profitable than house building land.