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The last time Liberty got involved with a media share I owed (Telewest), they bought the debt and bought off the Board. The board then wiped out shareholders (i.e with no rights issue) on the excuse that a single bond payment was missed. The corrupt accountants Arthur Anderson had suddenly drastically impaired the assets, wiping out billions of equity leaving the company billions in debt. Liberty bought a huge amount of debt for cheap. The shareprice collapsed from over £3 to £0.04p as they diluted shareholders on a debt for equity swap. At the end of the day, they got hold of vast billions of fibre optic assets which still operate profitably to this day as Virgin Media for pennies.
The sign that Liberty is reducing its holding is interesting.
I’m not sure that we can draw any conclusions from Goldman Sach’s moves, given that they still control Liberty Global’s stake and can easily re-enter into put/call options and contracts for difference at any time. Does it indicate another stake builder? I suppose we’d see that in an RNS, and the only ones that appear in the last few years are Goldman Sachs. But perhaps something is afoot. When Goldman announced there original interest in ITV and Liberty announced their ties with Goldman many presumed that this meant an imminent takeover bid ... the share price ramped up accordingly. But since then it has been steadily grinding down. Although ITV’s performance has been lacklustre, it really hasn’t been so bad to justify this level of fall, including the shock from Covid-19. William Hill are now in play. Perhaps UK assets are becoming more attractive ... after the Brexit deal is settled we might see more M&A. I just hope ITV is not given away and any bid is met with competition. It is a unique asset, after all.
Led - agree, but I'm not convinced that GS aren't in league with someone who might want to take us over, so I'm not convinced there would be any surprise announcements.
This is not a short term "manipulation" this has been several years in the making - look at our 5year chart. We're a profitable business - how has our share price tanked from over £2.75 at the end of 2015? Wasn't that just a few months after Liberty bought 9.9%? Aren't GS a closely associated hedge fund with Liberty?
Somebody is potentially making a shed load of cash in the background from these shares and has been for several years. At some point, that company will have made such a huge return on it's initial %age investment and get ITV, in essence, for free.
But that's just with my conspiracy theory hat on.
Thanks for the feedback & info GW
The FCA don’t seem to have the resources to investigate more traditional forms of insider trading, let alone the more indirect forms. Tbh, this is simply an institution manipulating prices, which can all come undone if the subject company springs a surprise announcement.
I think the issue is not so much the fact that GS are off loading shares, the real question is to whom?
The reduction in holding will be expiration / closing of their options so although moving in the right direction, they still have calls on our shares for many years to come, in small percentages - a lot of 0.03% make up that c15%. I still haven't fully got my head around their extensive options list in the Annexure to these RNSs but I think I have a rudimentary understanding.
Most of them will be done and dusted by the end of Q1 2022.......!
Looks like Goldman has been playing games again .very difficult. When you are a genuine investor and these people continue to take advantage of there positions , I can not see how this is not Regarded
inside dealing .
From a high of 21.26% holding in ITV, GS has just announced its latest reduction to 15.25% Whilst there’s clearly no guarantee that they won’t increase their holding again, it appears that they’re committed to this offloading.
Is it only me that sees this as a positive, in light of previous posters’ complaints about price manipulation by GS?
Is it perhaps one of the reasons we’re seeing something of a recovery in the SP?
Regardless of any of these points, I’m surprised that this BB has been so quiet in the light of this new information. Any thoughts anyone?