The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen 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.
Harwood have offered 26.25p per share for the business.
They claim it's in response to yesterday's 'extraordinary' share price movement and had to act quickly and without the chance to discuss it with the board. I don't believe them.
As predicted, they are trying to get this on the cheap and we must make sure the chairman is not influenced by his affiliation to Harwood.
By the way, don't be tempted to sell. They will end up paying more.
I should not have posted so quickly. The tender offer is only for 53.5m shares which would give them effective control without having to pay for the whole company. They have done this in collusion with Bayford.
This does not look like a friendly move and we should see some fireworks. Sit tight.
In fact, it's very unfriendly.
Harwood are highly critical of existing management and complain that the recent disposal was completed at an undervaluation of the business. It also says the company has rebuffed a recent approach from another party.
Harwood, if successful, wish to de-list the company.
For anyone familiar with Mill's approach, this is all very familiar.
A bit of fun to be had in these gloomy times.
Yep I was right. And in this case I hate that I was right :-(
My break even is 32p. Fingers crossed the up the offer. Offering 26.5p is nothing short of scandalous. We all know the price is depressed due to covid. The material value of the business is far more IMO
Feel free to disagree guys
Echo, you are right, this is a straightforward pishtake, and the market thinks so as well. There is not one thing to recommend this approach.
This is so, so typical Mills.
From a purely personal perspective a bid in the range of 35-50p would seem far more apt. A lot of investors and directors are losing out big time at the current bid. What we need is another interested party . . . ?
Indeed and it would be very interesting to find out who the other party referred to, was. My guess is Bayford, hence the tie-up with Harwood.
The response from our lads should be amusing.
Christopher Mills you effing ****
Whoever ear marked them as a vulture fund was quite correct. Fingers crossed the response from FCRM will be a good read :-)
It was me.
For various personal reasons, I've followed Mills over the years and have been astonished by his tactics. As soon as his investment was announced here, it was blindingly obvious what he was about to try. And bingo! here it is.
Governance and pipeline assets? Not something in the public domain until the sale was announced
Don't suppose Harrison was happy at being told to go and it was Harrison who went down the route of acquiring pipeline assets but through borrowing not using spare cash thereby putting the company at risk
Phps Mills had a tete a tete with him?
Well my hats off to you addic. I should’ve topped up at 15p but I’m just not willing to risk it atm.
I’m around 40% down on my portfolio at present, and I’m not working.
Hopefully fulcrum will be ready for a fight.
Echo, it is to be hoped so. They need to put up a very robust defence and they should also be getting their advisors to approach other potential bidders.
Let's hope they can get the price up to a level that returns you a profit.
Good to see a rapid response.
And very pleased to see that they view this as opportunistic approach given market conditions.
I have emailed the company's financial pr people and have asked them to clarify Holder's role. There is clearly a conflict of interest and he needs to stand aside.
I doubt I'll get a response, but it may prompt them to make an announcement about the issue.
I appreciate I’m fishing here but what do people think would be a realistic offer?
Good question, Echo. I admit, I don't really have a target price at the moment.
Echo
SP was c 65p before the Eu capacity market ruling.
Go back through the RNSs - think there was a share option grant over £1
Phps somewhere in between?
A
I have spoken to Tom on a couple of occasions. Difficult to get hold of at times.
I am sure a response will be forthcoming - whether it is what you want ? Wait & see.
I think if we were to settle between 65p and £1 I’d be very very happy.
But given the pathetically low opening bid is it realistic?
E
These guys think they can get current shareholders to accept delist.
Do not know if the late trades are real sells - but a lot of them 6mil+
There is clearly a plan - when Blackrock dumped and Bayford picked up a load there was talk about T/O - but the Bayford of old do not appear to be the current bayford retirement lots etc.
Mills saw an opportunity - and got some mates together to mount an offer - drawing in Bayford.
IMHO this is just a joke - but when PIs sell some one will pick up.
We have come quite a way from the original spin off - shame to get it all spoiled by a greedy bod who wants to put governance and value of pipeline assets as negative points of attack. To my knowledge the value of the assets sold have not been formally disclosed - what does |Mills know about the value of pipeline assets and their revenue stream - unless he has been prepped by a disgruntled one.
This is the proverbial bad attack -
Sorry seems the trades were c 10m! not 6
jl, you're right, this offer is a joke and has no chance of success, which, given Mills is not a fool, begs the question why is he trying it on? And why did he choose this structure?
The answer to the second question appears to be that he sees this as a cheap way to gain control of the business. If it was taken private he can do whatever he wishes with the company without any real sanction or scrutiny...this is totally unacceptable. He and Bayford may also see this offer as a way to flush out any other bidder and allow them a profitable exit.
I'm guessing, but I'm not sure how much fight the management team have in them and they may well be preparing to sit down with Mills to agree a more palatable deal. The problem is, as far as I can see, none of them are particularly experienced in corporate activity and would be trampled to death by Mills, who is an expert. (I'm afraid our new NED, although having corporate finance experience, is no match for Mills)
We can only hope our corporate finance advisors are up to the job and are able to extract fair value.
One thing's for sure, this has got legs and we can be assured of plenty of bitter fighting.