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Blackrock have increased again, now at 47,722,307 or 6.31%

Investors are starting to warm again towards buy and hold funds such as Lindsell Train, these guys have been sellers in the past few months possibly due to redemption's.

The use of Ai in image generation being tightened which may help companies like S4 take more control as it becomes more specialised, Ai summary below of two such initiatives coming into force next few months:

New York and California have enacted significant laws regulating AI-generated images, with compliance deadlines approaching in mid-2026.

New York Disclosure Law: Effective June 9, 2026, this law requires conspicuous disclosure when advertisements feature a "synthetic performer" (a digitally created human image). Violations carry civil penalties of $1,000 for the first offense and $5,000 for subsequent violations. It also expands right of publicity protections for deceased personalities, requiring consent for commercial use of their digital replicas.

California Transparency Act: Effective August 2, 2026, this law mandates that providers of generative AI tools with over one million monthly users provide detection tools and "manifest" disclosures (watermarks) for AI-generated content. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to $5,000 per offense.

Still a ways to go but some encouraging signs that things are returning to normal, Softcat is a good example.

'I was wrong over artificial intelligence jobs apocalypse, says Open AI boss Sam Altman

Open AI boss Sam Altman has backtracked on his previous warnings about artificial intelligence (AI), saying he does not believe it will lead to a global ‘jobs apocalypse’.

The chief executive of the company behind ChatGPT said he was ‘delighted to be wrong’ about fears over the impact of the technology.'

DM and other media

I don't think the biotech backdrop has ever been this bullish, especially around China but listed companies are getting walloped ?

'Global pharmaceutical corporations “need to have a Chinese strategy”, said Stephen Farrelly, managing director and global lead for pharmaceutical and healthcare at ING, a Dutch financial services group overseeing about US$15 billion in pharmaceutical and healthcare assets globally.

“It can be a partner, or it can be [competition], but you cannot be passive because this market is evolving at the speed that you simply must pay attention to it.”

The “NewCo” model – where financial sponsors acquire Chinese drug assets and spin them into stand-alone companies for overseas development – had emerged as a growing way for Chinese biotech firms to expand globally, according to a May report by L.E.K. Consulting. Deal activity increased from two in 2024 to 16 in 2025, accounting for about 12 per cent of out-of-China licensing deals by value last year.

https://www.scmp.com

Yep, we should start to get May updates soon, I think with Patient Capital it may have been too small looking at their other investments ?

Ex-dividend next week

'¤ Subject to shareowner approval, the Board proposes to pay a final dividend of 1.1p per share in respect of 2025, amounting to £7.4m, a 10% increase compared to 2024, on 10 July 2026 to all shareowners on the register as at 5 June 2026.'

At a guess I would say its likely Patient Capital, in march 2025 they held 30,000,000 - by Q4 2025 it had reduced to 26,000,000 - we know from mstar that has further reduced to 19,000,000.

In my experience when a fund decides to reduce it normally results in a total exit, reason being it takes as much effort to manage a smaller holding as it does a larger one.

https://patientcapitalmanagement.com/documents/FG/patient_capital/opportunity_trust/624632_Q1_Holdings.pdf

Common sense prevails (at last)..

The boss of one of Britain's biggest AI-enabled software firms has criticised a bank chief who said machine intelligence would replace 'lower value' staff.

Steve Hare, head of FTSE 100 group Sage, which incorporates artificial intelligence into its accountancy programs used by millions of businesses, told The Mail on Sunday that AI should be used to 'elevate' work done by humans not 'replace them completely'.

He added: 'There are clearly things a machine can do better, because it is faster and can mine data quicker, but in the end humans have judgment and context, so they should always make the final decision.'

DM

Hang Seng Index review to boost market capitalisation by 4.5%: Goldman Sachs

Tencent, BeOne Medicines, Baidu and NetEase may lure fund inflows between US$200 million and US$1 billion, due to index weighting changes

https://www.scmp.com/business/

I thought it may provide an additional way to contact CKHH, with a sort of 'hey, we're over here' sort of email, gentle reminder so to speak..

Did you get a response from your well written (and articulated) letter that you posted ?

CKHH background info, seems pretty active recently:

AS Watson is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings, which itself is reportedly considering listing its European telecoms business.

CK Hutchison owns Greene King, the UK pub chain which recently announced the sale of 150 pubs and offloaded its Old Speckled Hen beer to Spanish brewer Estrella Damm.

Earlier this month, the Hong Kong firm sold its 49 per cent stake in UK telecoms firm Three, giving Vodafone complete control of the recently established VodafoneThree conglomerate.

Were Superdrug’s owner to list its shares in London, the retailer would join a string of high street giants – worth as much as £20bn – who are eyeing up floats in the UK.

https://www.cityam.com/superdrug-owner-eyes-up-london-float-in-30bn-dual-listing/

Cheers for the insight Jatw, its good to see Hutchmed continuing to strengthen partnerships (Innovent) maybe that will lead to a capital event to help unlock value, crazy how these funds can walk it down to almost cash levels.

Many posters have (repeatedly) asked for dividends and/or share buy backs, but now measures are being taken to make that possible you are going to vote against it?

That 'l show 'em..lol

This has to approved before any share buy backs/and or dividends its standard stuff, search the stock exchange RNS feed for many other examples.

Sensible move in anticipation of things improving, perhaps THG already have cash from VAT rebate, that's certainly one possibility.

THG is a leveraged operation with many moving parts, its hard to forecast whats what but I am leaning towards increased margins for the following reasons:

# Modest improvement in FX

# Lower headcount

# Move into higher margin businesses (apparel)

Mstar April updates, Aberforth continue with modest increase along with barclays.

Should read '100%'

Thing is, how do funds expect to get a return, if you buy in at one trillion it has to go to two trillion to make 50%.

Still have Anthropic to throw their hat in the ring, could be another trillion or two lol

Well we are here, with the advent of SpaceX, OpenAi now filing papers for public offerings.

The backdrop to all of this is massively scaled back plans for the whole platform thing, Ai is never going to be a flop its a really useful tool but the extent of which is was pushed as a panacea to all humanities ills was just crazy..

Hoping this marks the peak of that insanity and the world can move on to a more stable environment, comparing SMS's latest interview below with one 12 months ago there is a notice change in Ai references, maybe that's just a coincidence though..

Lets see how these trillion dollar valuations stack up when fund managers have to cough up hard cash.

July will certainly be a watershed event, very much looking forward to the tide going out although I suspect there will be the odd comment that 'shorts' have now moved under the new threshold,..or sold out the day before..

Have a look at pairs trading, most likely option I can suggest having worked on these way back before they became popular..

Step back and think logically for a moment, apply the same rules to the stock market as you would in other areas of life.

Where else would you say 2% control the other 98% ..?

MP gets a mention, also highlights new protein trends

https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2026/05/19/whey-prices-protein-demand-and-the-shift-to-nutrition-platforms/

Only one sentence mentioning Ai, how times change..