Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Hi Max - You're quiet right I must have been thinking of Naval Group because I remember thinking when the Sapienza deal was announced that it was a complex company but because it was Dutch, and gave us a foothold in Europe , there would be little language barrier.
Mr TT WE invested in Sapienza and then further invested there.
Sapienza is based in the Netherlands NOT France. ----- Yours, Max.
Hi Dinoken - Your comments re your Portsmouth pal and the shrinking of our armed forces may be a little out of date. We do in fact deal with other countries any way but the recent Persian Gulf / Straights of Hurmuz tanker incidents will not reduce our naval budget and if the MoD can bring forward the vision of building surface ships to a pattern that can be sold to foreign governments then, at the least, things will stay as they are.
The UK submarine building programme is considered state of the art and the contract to supply the 12 Australian built subs air systems, although by a French company (Navel Group?) in S Australia shows that this side of things is pretty positive.
However we have made a recent investment in AI in France and our contract with the Army should therefore stand a good chance of being extended.
We are a 3rd tier company but we do seem to be doing all the right things to move up the food chain. As you say lets get the funds raised 2 years ago spent wisely - do a token Divi and the MC will double. If we were the subject of a hostile takeover I would expect the MC to treble. We are on the cuspof something! Just don't know what!!
TT - many thanks for your reply - had not fully considered the impact of weak £ on sales/profitability - but you are quite right - weak £ should really help.
As for TPG being vulnerable to takeover, pal from Portsmouth suggests that consolidation of UK defence industries is inevitable with shrinking size of fleet/armed forces and that TPG is more likely to be swallowed up by a UK concern rather than US. Until this conversation, had always thought that TPG would do the taking over. Back to the plot, the most likely UK players both begin with 'B' but only one has the frigate repair contract based in Portsmouth. Funnily enough, my daughter has just graduated with a BA in Portsmouth - what a coincidence ... Unadulterated speculation but a strange coincidence nonetheless.
Hope TPG slips the net and finally lands that purchase we have all been waiting for the last two years.
Hi Dinoken - some good questions.
1. Can't see us involved as It's way out of our league but if it does go ahead then there may be a scrap or two, but some time away I think.
2. With our low MC I believe we are very vulnerable here. This may be why our last trading statement was so underwhelming!
3. While the low £ is a disadvantage and makes it expensive to buy in theory it should enhance any profit and in the long term it pays off. Trouble is if the £ recovers in the next couple of years or so then we lose that advantage. However we do seem quite good a partnering overseas businesses so we shouldn't be to disadvantaged.
To me, the surprise of this week was the astonishing news that US vultures had descended on Cobham to feast, and that Meggitt is considering beating them off. Wondering if anyone knows 1) whether TPG may have some involvement here - not to table a counter bid - but maybe to scrounge some scraps that the vultures or Meggitt do not want ? 2) with yanks snapping up UK defence firms while dollar strong against sterling, could TPG be in the cross-hairs ? 3) with pound so weak against just about every other currency, is this a factor holding back TPG overseas acquisitions ?