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I was in GSk and RDSB when activists bought in and saw the same reaction from the market. I have had a few lucky trades in the past few days. I sold Rdsb at very close to its peak a few days ago and then bought Unilever very close to the bottom. I am now hoping this will continue to rise for a few days and make me a good 10% and if GSK goes to close to 1600 I might sell this and buy that. But, not sure it might be worth hanging in here for a while to see what management do with the additional pressure to change from an experienced hedge fund.
Interesting times
I was buying short while back when this was even further down and mentioned that it was easy money, to which someone replied there is never any easy money on the stockmarket. In normal times, I would have been in complete agreement. However, I do get the feeling that people panic and over-react more these days. Consequently, my portfolio is bulging. Thanks!
Indeed, lets hope it keeps going!
That was a very accurate prediction....5%
The Activist Fund sees value that is why they take a stake, this will go up steadily
The activist fund will cause this to rise at least 5% over the next few days. It's a great time to load up and wait for the SP to rise steadily. I bought in a few days ago and am already 5% up. Thus has a long way to go.
Unilever's management risks coming under further pressure after an aggressive activist investor was reported to have built a stake in the Marmite maker.
Unilever© Provided by The Telegraph Unilever
News of the move by Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners emerged after Unilever suffered its biggest weekly share price fall since March 2020 following a failed £50bn bid for GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health business, wiping £6bn off the value of the company.
The size of Trian’s stake, first reported by the Financial Times, is unknown but the presence of Mr Peltz is likely to intensify the pressure on Unilever’s chief executive Alan Jope after the swiftly aborted GSK deal.
The billionaire has turned his gaze on Unilever months after retiring from the board of rival Procter & Gamble after a four-year campaign to improve performance at the company, which helped drive an 85pc jump in the share price.
Unilever’s brief foray into major M&A comes after months of slowing sales and increasing anger among investors at the board’s strategy. The company’s shares have underperformed major rivals including Nestle, P&G, PepsiCo and L’Oreal over the past five years.
Fund manager Terry Smith called Unilever’s GSK bid a “near-death experience” and urged the company to focus on fixing its own business.
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Mr Smith also complained that the company had “lost the plot” in seeking to promote the sustainable ethos of brands such as Hellmann’s rather than focusing on financial returns.
Analysts warned the mooted deal would leave the company laden with debt while investors have warned Mr Jope off any major M&A.
Mr Peltz’s interest comes exactly five years after Kraft’s failed bid for Unilever prompted an overhaul of its cumbersome structure and the offloading of its PG Tips tea business.
The company has promised further change this week with the unveiling of a new “operating model that will drive greater agility”.
Trian and Unilever declined to comment.
Trian, founded by Mr Peltz in 1985, has $8.5bn in assets under management including stakes in Bank of New York Mellon, chemicals company DuPont and food firm Mondelez International. Mr Peltz’s daughter, actress Nicola, is engaged to former footballer David Beckham's son, Brooklyn.
I too rebuilt my holding on Friday at what I hope is a good entry point, i.e. just after the mgt got ticked off big time. More of the same won't hurt.
https://www.ft.com/content/a17a6811-78a8-4eb7-a2be-adbb8eb75119
Ppl also have to remember in 4 months time UK will be in energy crisis. Something that people on this board have not priced into sales growth. U Ken
I believe ULVR is evenly priced at the minute, maybe a touch on overpriced too
There are plenty of risks that could hold the business back.
Inflation is affecting consumer confidence. This could cause consumers to move away from higher-value brands favouring cheaper alternatives like supermarket alternatives.
We will see if ULVR can prove me wrong, but so far after 12mths of watching this dismay display compared to NESTLE’s 25%+ growth in business I’m not a fan of adding any as I see further downside until the inflation does slow right down.
GLA
Swingman
“Given the current predicament by the management regarding change of direction, even the today sp is slightly overpriced.”
What a brilliant assumption!
And may I asked how your incredible mathematical brain arrived at that conclusion?
Or did you just imagine it?
I eagerly await your vector calculus.
triomph1, ULVR have many great brands, albeit mature, surely they can grow them by creative modification and pricing instead of acquiring even more brands that they'd allow stagnate in 5 years time ?
triump
Thanks nikylauda. Surprising that sales haven't grown as their brands are very good. Maybe they need Sales people better at growing mature brands, even reducing prices but getting higher op profit from increased volumes ?!!
Says it all Nick..thanks for posting
https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/media/iljh250j/fundsmith_unilever_and_gsk.pdf
Triumph, not sure what those views are but assume its that the 'dusty' ftse indexes seems to be capped vs S&P. Though, add dividends and things improve. The potential for capital destruction in debt instruments must rank higher at the moment, or is fixed income safer?
https://www.britishempire.co.uk/resource/dividendday.htm
I'm becoming more and more aligned with porsche1946 hardline view on ftse100 and UK in general.
Amazing to see the old dusty money uproar when their beloved unilever actually tried to do something about their stagnating growth and margin erosion due to inflation.
The old grannies don't want to dust down unilever and restart growth. Well....death by a thousand cuts it is. Shareholder attitude towards change is ridiculous.
'Nothing like a bit of management BS speak to raise the spirits'
Yeah, who hasnt been on the receiving end!
But its a big company and comms are done in 'town hall meetings'. If the message is genuinely for investor consumption, I read the sum of the parts are bigger than the whole. Identifying all the business elements to go with a disposal is important. Any business sale would come fully functioning and not leave a lot of 'shared cost' behind. Quite how gsk was envisaged to integrate whilst all that was going on, I dont know?
"...we intend to move away from our existing matrix to an operating model that will drive greater agility, improve category focus, and strengthen accountability".
Oh goody! Nothing like a bit of management BS speak to raise the spirits. Jesus wept!
'weak sterling is good for ULVR'
Hurts my head to think of the exchange rate 'nexus', just as inflation, interest rates etc by entity/ country.
S0, is all the complexity to be pushed down to the opco/ regions?
' After a comprehensive review of our organisation structure, we intend to move away from our existing matrix to an operating model that will drive greater agility, improve category focus, and strengthen accountability.'
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/ULVR/unilever-update-j21xd8qac06iqf1.html
weak sterling is good for ULVR you wally !!
Given the current predicament by the management regarding change of direction, even the today sp is slightly overpriced. I suspect it will head south once the GSK relief runs out.