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Canaccord should be a bit braver and do what Barclays did today and set a target price of 9,600 P !!!! obviously a typing error on the Hargreaves Broker round up site but I would be happy with half that thank you.
Moles?
In Yesterday's Prufrock column in the Sunday Times we read that Paul Lester the chairman of MCS who has made the deal to SELL MCS at a knockdown price, "was also chairman of brick maker Forterra until last year, a position he took up in 2015 when the company was owned by .....Lone Star.Fancy that!"
I find this to be incredible....and can't
get the image of a beady eyed mole out of my head.
Meanwhile in Saturdays Times , Alistair Osborne writes " McCarthy bid seems puzzlingly low "
Answers on a postcard please.....
.... to 115p following Fridays news. Brilliant! That's why the guys with red braces earn so much!
Sadly Marble, the way things are at present you wont have the option. Your shares will be sold from beneath you.
I'm assuming that the Lone Ranger (or whatever they call themselves) will increase their holding by buying in the market - why not, they buy at the current price and gain shares on which they can cast votes that count towards rubber stamping their takeover or wait until the end of the bid process when they will probably pay pretty much the same price for shares on which they were unable to cast votes. So they may as well go for it. Anyone know the rules about them buying (and to what limit) after the offer is announced? I'm assuming they can increase to 30%, the limit where making a bid would be forced upon them.
I think they will be tight on this offer - I noticed the para about retaining the right to reduce the offer price if any divi was paid out. That may be standard but strikes me as a company that is unlikely to put another 40p per share on the table. A white night is needed, preferably someone who will sack this totally spineless board.
It's a 140-150p share and in time it will easily recover. I don't want to sell.
yes there is alot of money gone in from after hrs buyers. strong poss of a counter bid? gla
Gone through for higher than the offer price of 115
Don’t get it?
This is a gut-wrenching offer for LTH - I count myself in that crowd having invested 2yrs ago.
This stock is easily capable of generating eps of 10p+ so the offer is little over p/e of 10 ... and I would much rather have a 7-8% annuity income than this one-time cash.
I'm certainly not selling in the open market and will vote against the sale ... quite optimistic that another opportunistic Private Equity or Hedge Fund will counter-offer in the 125-150p range ... which is still below long term value
Thankfully I averaged down when the sp dropped below 70p so will walk away with a small profit if this goes ahead, but I purchased for the yield not the one-off gain
Undoubtedly the BoD have all been advised that they will be retained on improved contracts to continue to manage the business ... so much for representing the shareholders
Some of the posts on advfn are worth reading. Talk of an earlier 180p bid rejected by the then board, when the NAV was lower than today.
Obviously for a substantial company the SP has to be viewed relative to the level of the market which it is in, in this case the FTSE250, as well as the sector of operation. The FTSE250 is down 10% over a year. Even after the bid MCS is down double that figure..
Not sure what point I'm trying to make here, but to me this bid is opportunistic and the BOD is weak and barely invested themselves in the equity. Certain fact is that the fate of MCS is in the hands of Institutions, not private investors. Our clout is negligible.
Ha ha, that's a relief, thought I'd offended you!
That's was meant t to be a laughing emoji :-)
????
Crank
They do need over 50% (of which they have 17.2%) to secure the bid. 30% means they have to make a bid (from my understanding, often flawed!) but that is irrelevant since they have already bid. Not sure whether as a declared bidder they are allowed to carry on buying in the market prior to the vote, thereby giving themselves more votes. Maybe someone can inform me. If not they need to persuade 32.8% (ok strictly 32.9%) of shareholders to back them. Exciting times. Wonder why they didn't try to get closer to the 30% before declaring the bid?
Crank
We'll see. If I sell at the current price I will clear the 115p. Just. If I wait I'll get ..... 115p. I think I will wait my time rather than make one of my (in) famous investment decisions elsewhere, at least its safe(ish) where it is.
Why on earth would it be unethical? Its a market and the shareholder vote hasn't been taken. For an ongoing company It up to the majority of the shareholders as to what happens
Might be whispers of a counter offer but as price offer per share now public that would be a tad unethical, but you never know. Shame I didn’t get in early this morning but concentration was elsewhere on the pharma sector.
mango you are such a cynic. The BOD are primarily charged with looking after shareholders interests, not in feathering their own nests......shame on you for suggesting it!!!!
Squib
Yep, if it goes through without opposition (ie without the terms being improved) you will get 115p cash per share and your holding will be cancelled. MCS will cease as a qu0ted company on the Stock Exchange. You wont get the money for some months as there are various regulatory hoops to jump though including a vote from us, the equity holders. You could sell (or indeed buy more) in the market right now, but you would have to pay dealing fees as usual which you wont if you simply wait for the deal to conclude. As I said in my previous post, its odd that the SP is above 115p right now, if the market was convinced that its a done deal at this offer price then you would expect the SP to be at a small discount to reflect risks/ interest until the payout. I would have expected, say, 112p/113p?
This deal is a kick in the teeth for long term shareholders.
The only reason it may go ahead is that the directors will receive life changing piles of cash despite presiding over a disaster for the shareholders who they are supposed to be working for: the unacceptable face of capitalism
All we can do is vote against and hope the institutional holders dont accept the deal
Hi all long term shareholders What will happen will we lose all our shares!! Should we sell or ok to hold ?? Cheers
Quite right Mas, there will be no MCS post deal, at least not a quoted one. The board of MCS have rolled over and accepted their pound of gold without a fight apparently, justifiable only if there is something nasty which hasn't been announced - and if you believe that then you should dump in the market because due diligence will flush it out before the deal is finalised. The SP was over 150p earlier this year and pretty much throughout the whole of 2019, despite the leasehold model scare. Property prices still high, the population is still aging, so the model very much intact with no real competitors in the UK. Leasehold issue now sorted and the deal with Anchor Hanover announced recently. This seems anecdotally a low offer and the BOD is welcoming with open arms? Cant say I am impressed . I note the SP is, as i write at least, steady at a premium over the cash offer price which will take months to receive - what is that telling us?
You do realise the board have accepted an offer of £1.15p per share so likelihood is MCS is not for much longer?
Jumped out to take a very nice profit. It's been a bumpy year so for me it's a case of take it now. However I will watch MCS going forward as it is still an attractive proposition. Should there be a fall over a difficult winter then I'd certainly consider buying back in
Brilliantly timed investment from Alchemy. Now we know why the share price was holding up for the past few days when the rest of the market was falling. I had planned on sitting on my investment here for a couple of years in the hope that it could return to approx 150p but I can't complain at a 61% increase on my investment. Think I'll hang around for a possible counter offer.
Good profit. But I was expecting much more from this share over time.
With just over 17% of shares backing this bid could there be a counter bid?