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Cap'n you want to reward the board for what is coming!?......a bit premature doncha think? Anyways aside from a moan pis can do now't about it other than sell out. The compound interest case due to be heard in July, if they can find a judge would be very advantageous for Spo should Littlewoods prevail. Our sale of the pools is fully priced in though whether any cap gains is due/has to be recognised this year i doubt...yet. So far the jury is out on whether tendering was the right thing to do, time will on that one. Sooner or later we will have to use our cash to boost shareholder returns either by entering the dividend list or buying profits. There must be hundreds of good businesses in the US which would fit nicely into our Venues division whose profits are tiny atm. I look forward to hearing what plans the board has to grow the business without the regular free cash from the pools. If they can it would damm nearly be a first!
Noses in trough again!! Nil cost options awarded to board members under spurious incentive/performance plans! What does the average pis receive. ...sfa! Heh guys...Three cheers for our wonderful board!!
The mrkt must like us holding a chunk of cash on the balance sheet as the shares trade over 100 so could hardly reflect profits post---pools. Just our luck if the sp takes off....Wonder how many pis tendered or part tendered their shares? I know of 4 who cashed out completely having had a 'good run' It's always a risk that the stock price won't behave the way you think it should, as in this case so having a 50:50 bet looked the way to go should your initial assumption, that the sp would fall not materialise.....at least you will have a stake in the upside. Still too early to be sure of the sp trend as a lot depends on future US news/action and how the board intends to use our cash. They cannot hang about. Penrose & Co have had many months considering options 'over there'.....now would be a good time to let us know! have a stake in the upside.
Well its done now...onwards & upwards.....(when the pools is concluded) hope no last minute hitches! Be looking to buy back lower in the months ahead....if I'm right! ( Lol.)
A couple of people i know never re'cd the info re the tender offer.... one of the drawbacks of being in a nominee holding! Unless your broker is on the ball chances are you will hear nothing so will have to chase the info yourself. On this occasion you won't be much disadvantaged as you could have got 101.17 in the market. However if the offer price had been 115.....you would not be best pleased! HL were on the ball with the various options sent to you on your mob. We will hear today how many shares were tendered for cancellation.
Horse Racing gambling Web site 123gaming is launching a £1m equity crowd funding campaign, with £100k already secured from Sportech. It hopes to use funds to upgrade it's US website and launch in the UK.
A small premium (1-1.5) is on the cards if you tender your shares. Given that this is aimed at pis my guess is you will not be scaled back So say on a 10k holding you will be better off by around £162. Not great but at 101.5 it was designed to be 'scroogelike' though to be fair if they had gone down the dividend route can't see a 2-3p divi being offered...can you? No, a 1p max! Tuesday we will get the results of nos tendered and monies on the 28th. Will you be buying back if the shares slip into the 90's or below?
In the interest of keeping track of Spo I have decided to tender 75% of my holding so as to have a stake in the future of the co and so I can legitimately waffle on this board! Should the shares fall back I will be in a position to buy if I wanted. Still don't trust the sp at this level bearing in mind the fall off in the co profits this year. No doubt the sp is supported by our cash & compound interest claim to some extent so we will have to wait & see how things pan out. Realistically 70 looks right but wtfdik?
Last I heard... " this claim is on hold pending the outcome of Littlewoods Retail & others v HMRC scheduled to be heard in July '17. Previously the Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the High Court decision that the tax payer was entitled to interest on a compound basis on the loss of interest on the over payment of vat"......I think I remember reading that this might be in the region of the vat awarded to Spo (£97m) but that's not substantiated. If Littlewoods win their case in the SC do Spo have to go through a separate trial or are our claims automatically agreed to? I think there will be a lot of argy-bargy as to the amounts in question and the time frame extremely uncertain going on our vat experiences. The odds look favourable that Littlewoods will be successful and if so Spo will benefit which might persuade holders to stay with Spo pending the outcome. I'm having second thoughts....
Atm the market are not going to give holders much if any premium to tender their shares outside of dealing costs which for most of us on Internet deals pay c £12. So saving £12 is better than nothing i guess if you add in perhaps a 1p premium. Whatever by holding your taking a fair bit on trust that Spo can reinvent itself to become a Co that produces increasing rev's & profits on a reasonably consistent basis in the US when past history tells a different story. No doubt Spo is well placed in a sector I like but the management is unproven. You would almost be investing in a new venture without the cash flow provided by the pools partly made up by our cash in the bank. Somehow the pools revenues will have to be replaced as soon as possible by using our cash to make aquisitions (we won't be able to grow the R& V businesses quick enough) that will plug this hole as soon as possible as the cash will soon run out. That is an added risk that buying a related business may not perform as expected. Any aquisition has risk attached so if we are looking to spend c $100m it better be a profit earner from day 1. Just a few thoughts on what I think needs to happen when everything is signed sealed & delivered. I'm sure you guys can think of others if your intending to stay for the second coming of Sportech!
When Hemmings bought Littlewoods pools (£160m) and reversed it into Rodime a new co (Sportech was created)..thats about all I can remember. As to the details im afraid they are long lost as I had a clear out of all cuttings and c/notes on the deal. But your right Spo has been a very poor investment for years and years, well excepting this year when you could have bought in the low 50's. Not much help I'm afraid. I thought I may have some stuff on the Littlewoods / Rodime deal but alas I found nothing.
Any one investing in this company as I did in 1999 then Rodine days buying 250,000 shares, to discover they are now only worth the same cash value is a real shock, when they did the last change over from Rodine to Sportech they only give me one tenth of the value. Is this one the same, can any one tell me
At what mrkt price will you tender your shares. If below 100 (currently) you might but say 97 or as low as 95 one would tender all hoping your filled! The lower the mrkt price the more shares will be tendered that's pretty obvious especially for 6 figure holders. The risk is you get severely scaled back and have to sell the balance at the lower mrkt price. Of course one can ignore the 'noise' and do nothing..... not that I would recommend doing that unless your hopelessly undecided so a bit of 'masterly inactivity' may work on the theory that whatever you do will be wrong (that's me), so staying pat your still invested in Spo's future across the pond, albeit at perhaps a lower sp. Anyone looking to 2018 a year of trading ex pools won't be much worried about that. With Trumps pro business policies and the Wall St love-in continuing now looks a good time to be invested over there. However there are dark clouds on the horizon, namely int rates rising this year possibly as many as 3 times which would impact on spend, also the US debt ceiling which might force the Fed hand and lastly Trumps budget details on Thrusday which looks like the military are going to be big beneficiaries at someone else's expense. Holders will have to bone up on the nitty gritty of the US economy and much else. Difficult enough here!!!
I don't think they want pis shares! The iis would not really be much interested at c the current price...so is that the way Spo treats it's shareholders? Only really till Friday to decide one way or another. I'm leaving as I think I will be able to buy back lower down when all the dust settles. We shall see.
I have overlooked the 'compound' interest case that Littlewoods won at a recent court hearing and which we have submitted way back. Whether this is material I'm not sure as this could be a vat case prt two....concluding way into the future so best to ignore for now.
That is by 5.00pm on 20/3...next Monday.
Brokers PH est that Spo will make c £5m (net?) year '17 or c 2.70p on the expected reduced amount of shares in issue of say 186m. If debt was zero and little in the way of cash what would the business be worth? A guess of say 10-15 x earnings? That would be a sp of c 40p....ish. Add to this our cash pile of £83m for the Pools which I guess we will have to pay tax on at c 20% reduces to £67m or c 36pps. So feasibly an sp of c 76p.....if you take 15x earnings and a full 36p for our cash which the mrkt may or may not value at in a few months time. My guess at anywhere between 70-80 is fully valuing the Co bearing in mind that our cash balance is likely to be used this year on an aquisition(s) that may not be revenue enhancing this & next year. I cannot see how we can be valued at £208m ex the pools. That would be valuing our R&V business at 45+ x earnings (£121m). BOFPCalcs of course and I may be missing something obvious but thought I'd throw it out there. Anyways at 101.5 we're at the T/O price which might reduce the nos of shares tendered (the plan all along?) I'm taking they were for cancellation (no point in treasury). Be interesting to see how the stock performs between now and the due date next week.
I should have clarified by OUT being tendering all your shares hoping your successful. I see no point in tendering just a % of ones holding reducing / diluting your position. This would not suit me, it might work for others? So good luck in whatever you decide.
Forgetting the tender offer I think it's a simple decision to make. Do you want out or to stay in? Out you'll take up the offer. In...you risk the market adjusting the shares down to reflect profits being less this year but don't care because of the opportunities ahead for Spo in the US. As I said before happy days if the sp stays around 90-100 ex all!
Wonder whether the offer has been pitched so tightly at virtually zero premium to speak of is because they do not want holders to tender their shares? We're these shares for cancellation or treasury? It's probably in the statement somewhere and I've missed it. Whatever I'm sure that those who want out at 101.5 will tender all their shares in the expectation of the co being worth less down the line. That we cannot know for sure our mrkt value may well remain the same bolsted by our cash. Sometimes investors take a dim view of co's with large cash balances not 'earning their keep'..ie a drag on earnings and the potential to make hasty unwise decisions. This may or may not happen so a 'do nothing' / 'wait and see' is an option for the undecided.... Norton1....a tender offer, well a decent one allows holders to sell to the co a % of their shares at a premium free of costs and reducing the shares outstanding, as opposed to receiving a taxed dividend on money already taxed which you have paid dealing costs on to boot. Note I said premium which so far is zeroish. Of course by the 20th the picture could have changed and their might be a small premium?
Wrong bloody board!!
Big game tonight...Ire odds on (4/7) to beat Wales so no bet for me, that's when Wales win of course! Scot at 4's v Eng is only for the Jocks to lose money on!.....Big drop off in Sphere trades/bargains this week, don't read anything into that we've probably been 'overbought' anyway. The ask has moved up over the wk from 5.22 to 5.37 which does not feature on any scale I know of. Won't be long before they will be moving prices up/down by 0.025% points. The bod still resolutely refrain from buying any cheap stock which is beginning to worry me, so we might be forgiven for thinking that P ain't doing the buizz! Oh well have a good wk/end all...
Assume they cancel 20m shares that leaves 186m outstanding. Ebita for Racing & Venues was c £12m giving us c 0.64 pps or a pe/r of 15 x earnings. That looks steep imo even allowing for our pools cash which might be less than £83m after expenses etc...So while a nice cushion how much value will the mrkt put on our cash? Soon after completion do you think the sp will go above the 101.5? I very much doubt it. Losing 50% off our bottom line cannot equate to a mrkt cap of £200m (that would be near 17 x) if the sp remained unchanged. Just a thought. But heh.... happy days if it does!
Agreed the offer is derisory...but this is Spo afterall... if you hold remember our two remaining divis- ions produced pre tax £12.1m. So on completion the co is not going to be worth £200m! If shares outstanding are c 180m after tender the per ratio would drop to around c 6p. Of course you would have c 45 p in cash so it's a trade off...cash now or later on. Your circumstances will dictate what you do. I intend to sell as I have been invested here too long and the offer which does not reward holders is a isps take!
After reading the RNS i found the offer rather crap, so i am going to keep my shares for now and see what happen...