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Nom
"At an inexpensive share price, removing shares in issue is often a good use of capital, and that’s exactly what Lloyds is doing. A £750m share buyback is underway, taking around 7% of shares out of circulation."
What's this man on about?
"not a wise move by the banks, the media would crucify the sector"
Agreed, though profits generating buybacks will also attract criticism. A planned strategy of reducing the share count is an opportunity to counter that criticism by reminding government of the hbos legacy.
"a special div is pointless'
A bit insensitive to the many older investors who rely on this for income. I meant I would favour a slower increase to a recurring dividend, than a one off special that leads to a stagnant (or falling) year on year payment.
"after the 4 billion Charlie has spent on buybacks the share price is still lower than before"
The sp has climbed 2.75% above the average price paid in this years buyback and 10% from its October low.
I would prefer the Telegraph money put straight in for a buyback. Unlike most here, I think a special div is pointless and I would prefer to reduce the share count and grow the dividend.
Lots of people moaned about the falling share price during the buyback :)
Great to see todays share price exceeding the average price paid for the approx. 4.4B share cancellation that has occurred.
Having the Telegraph debt paid back is the cherry on my Lloyds cake.
S1
"The Gini coefficient (inequality) has improved +3% since 2010... "
This is a measure of inequality. Zero represents perfect equality and 1 represents perfect inequality. An increasing value would mean greater inequality; I suppose it depends on your politics but I dont see that as an improvement for a country.
Https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/140584/what-is-implied-shares-outstanding-in-yahoo-finance-statistics
this one accords with lti's response
Troop
https://www.financereference.com/implied-shares-outstanding/
Steveb
My savings are 75% in a SIPP and 25% in an ISA. The ISA is intended to help clear my mortgage in a few years while in the meantime it is also money I could access in an emergency if needed. The 25% SIPP is on top of occupational contributions, not in place of them, so a slightly different example to yours. Yes, you can access a SIPP 25% tax free at 55 and then the rest is taxed as income, so for basic rate taxpayers overall its a 5% marginal benefit over an ISA. But you have to wait until 55 to access it. Previously, cashing in a SIPP would trigger a limit on any further tax free pension contributions over £4k per year, this has recently been upped to £10k per year. So for most people they will continue to receive a tax refund on new contributions even if they empty their pot at 55.
Professional advice is good but can also be extremely costly, there's quite a lot of free self help stuff out there as well.
If I was self employed I would also have a look at NEST pensions. They appear to have done quite well, but one drawback appears to be quite high charges attached to new lump sum contributions.
Best of luck.
Hump
"The problem with this country is too many people like the people on this board. include myself in that for bothering to engage"
I agree with the first part of that. I just tend to read now and try not to react to the fascists. There's half a dozen or so posters whose views on investing really interest me. But after two years here, I've reached a conclusion that its best to stay out of the trough.
"The problem is not the migrants but what attracts them to come here"
UK and France pay about the same benefit to an asylum seeker, a bit less than forty pounds a week. Accommodation is not luxurious. Many of the people who risk the crossing do so because they have family already here, or have already learned the language. Illegal work has also been easier to find in the UK. France has significantly more refugees than the UK and the majority of them stay in France.
Gu
"why lloyds Not buy up the Grainger"
Yes, they could easily try, but they might have to pay a premium price over £2B. Maybe they are testing Lomond out? They are (so they claim) a rapidly developing organisation with 1100 staff and 40,000 properties under management. But when you read on, they have completed 40 acquisitions since 2021. If they just bought loads of other businesses to grow very quickly, it is not necessarily a sign of competence and could be higher risk. Lomond will also handle sales as well as lettings, I'm not sure if Grainger would.
Https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2023/8/lloyds-bank-names-agency-in-deal-to-manage-its-rental-stock
lol it never occurred to me they would outsource the lettings and housing management functions. Cant decide - is it good because they dont have any experience and could mess it up really easily / is it bad as it bumps up costs and may not be what tenants expected?