Charles Jillings, CEO of Utilico, energized by strong economic momentum across Latin America. Watch the video here.
As far as I can see dividends since the end of the HBOS misery have been
13/14 nil
14/15. O.75p
15/16. 2.75p
16/17. 3.05p
17/18. 3.05p
18/19. 3.21p
19/20. 3.37p
Somebody will please say if those are correct ( they include a 0.5p special dividend in 15/16 and 16/17, which was consolidated in 17/18).
The key question on 20/21 depends on whether the £2.5bn in 19/20 signals the end of the PPI misery. The CEO has been signalling increased dividends once the past is behind us and we ought to see something if profits for 20/21 are significantly higher.
It should be getting close to when the Bank tells us how the PPI situation is going to end. They are obviously still trying to clear up all the last minute claims, said to have been many times higher than anything they had seen before. But they have been putting billions in each year, and the key question will be how much more they will need to take from profits to make the final reconciliation (with a small buffer set aside for ongoing disputes and possible court cases.
The share price has reacted strongly to Brexit news, from a recent low of around 50p to the price of around 60p now. A long way from the 65p at which I sold some in April. All those long term Daniels and Blank sufferers remember Prices many times higher, but we always clutch at the straw of buying bucket loads at 37p in one of the many rights.
It will always be better than RBS, which in comparative terms is selling at around 22p. And is still massively owned by the public.
There was an article in the Times about the last month of PPI and more billions to come. Over £20bn could get close to £25bn if they are correct. While AHO is not blamed for PPI (he was clearly not there) he is blamed for being way out at the beginning. When he suggested that not much more than £3bn would be close to the final outcome. It was a poor prediction, but then no-one knew how it would go.
If anyone is to blame it is Blank and Daniels, and whatever Lloyd’s took on from the dead duck HBOS. Which can be attributed to their managers and Gordon Brown, who used the stupidity of the Lloyd’s board to get us to save the government being stuck with HBOS as they should hVe been.
Up over 2p today shows that few take any notice of the Times business sections. Oversold in a massive way but banks are friendless. Deutsche Bank downgraded Lloyd’s - ironic from one of the biggest basket cases in Europe.
In the past month the #hare price has risen by 24%, from 548 to 682. And the market cap has increased from £3.2bn to almost £4bn. Which is a hopeful sign in what has been a disastrous fall since the takeover of Ladbroke.
We have been sheholders in Rentokil since before the days of the BET takeover. When they were a steady share around £1.60 for years. In the crash of 08 they went down to 35p like all other such companies. That they have recovered to £4.50 shows that they have magnificent managers who are dead set on growing the company in rat catching and allied areas. The dividend is very small but we much prefer such great growth in place of a few extra pennies on the dividend. If we want income to balance our portfolio we invest in BP which goes up and down like a yo-yo but which provides income well in excess of inflation.
The problem is gambling has become a political play now. With talks moving on from “having a flutter” to becoming addicted and ruining people’s lives. Whichever government is in power they will have a mandate to curb gambling. Whether in betting shops or on-line. I5 will be interesting to see how GVC and others like William Hill and PaddyPower can do what the tobacco industry couldn’t , and make betting relatively harmless.
We hold the stock and have seen the share price halve from £11 to 548p. The market cap is £3.2bn which is roughly what the company paid for Ladbroke. On that basis everything else is worth nothing.
Interesting to look at the directors sales. It shows sales in the 900p range, and most recently two key directors selling their shares at 666p.
It is easy to say it is going to do an Acado and turn betting shops into an on line giant. I hope it Willburn there is nothing evidence to support what is a falling knife.
I am not clear how any Partygaming valuation has any relevance for GVC shareholders now? I don’t know where the £6.5bn valuation went - there is no audit trail other than what looks like a company that doesn’t seem to be traded now. Was it integrated into GVC when it was building up the company that took over Ladbroke Coral? There is a lot of interesting history but no evidence of any money/value which would add to the GVC market cap.
The basic fact is that if you put together all the parts that went into making GVC pre the Ladbroke deal and factor in the amount that GVC paid for Ladbroke the pre deal value of GVC has virtually disappeared - the whole shebang is only worth slightly more now than what GVC paid for Ladbroke of £3.1bn. That is my difficulty in understanding why the whole world of the “experts” is pointing to GVC as a massive strong buy. And has had that rating since the bid for Ladbroke. What am I missing?
Reductions in costs and synergies were baked into the rationale for paying £3.1bn for Ladbroke. They have to be radical and far reaching if they are to make any sense out of the bid, which cost them their cash and a large element of debt.
I went into a Coral shop to place a bet on the Open recently while racing was going on and the place was empty. Since what GVC paid for Ladbroke (£3.1bn) is almost all the current value of the combined group (£3.5bn) we have to hope that they can convince the punters who used the betting shops that will close to move to GVC’s on line offering rather than to Paddy Power, Sky etc.
As someone who owned shares in Ladbroke from the start in 1967, and whose family have a holding in GVC, I am struggling to see what is happening to value in what has been put together here. Others may have a better understanding of the position.
GVC paid a reduced £3.1bn for Ladbroke Coral (having bid £3.9bn dependent on the slots outcome). Earlier they paid £1bn for Bwin and ££485m for Sportingbet. GVC had a value itself before all those bids. According to FTSE 250 the market cap of the combined business is now around £3.5bn.
The shares have come down from £11 to under £6. What am I missing about GVC, other than their edge on the technical side and the prospect of something unquantified in the US (assuming betting shops are fast become old hat).
Hi Maddox. £11.84 down to £6 isn’t a dip for ordinary shareholders. It is a crash. My argument is that short sellers will have been having a field day/year on news. The press articles are following the news, beginning with the totally stupid act of the two top managers to sell some of their shares. Days after saying that the shares were too cheap. Not huge numbers, which made it all the more stupid from people who must have made a justified fortune for taking GVC from a tiddler to being able to “win” Ladbroke/Coral and having the sense to play the slots price so successfully.
Taking a private company into the big league (FTSE 100) requires people who understand what running a big company entails. On the day they sold their shares GVC went down 17%. They were already relegated from the FTSE 100 to the 250. They need people at the top who know what is needed to combine the strength of the business with business acumen and PR.
The crass sale by the two top managers of their own shares days after having announced the company was in fine form showed that they do not understand how the market in shares works in a public company. Other issues concerning Turkey have not gone away despite their assurance that their action was well flagged.
The sad fact for shareholders, particularly those from Ladbroke, is that the year high of 1184p is now hovering around 600p. Virtually halved from the top. Deutsche Bank, who know a great deal about decimating share value in their own shares, recommend a buy for GVC at 900p. If GVC can break into the US they will have to be more canny than they were over the Nevada licence.
A shame, because the world of Ladbrokes in betting shops is looking yesterday’s story, while the digital world of GVC looks a great replacement if the management is up to challenge.
The dividend is a huge attraction at over five and a half per cent. And AHO is committed to increasing it . The absence of any further PPI provision and the approach of the final date for claiming is also a huge plus.<br /><br />Anything reasonable on a Brexit outcome and Lloyds will be off to the races. We are adding at these levels.
We have been in from the start when they were given to us free by Christian Salvesen, one of our best ever investments having sold half between £15 and £22. The old management seemed to take their eyes off the ball, after the great period when they were doing world cups and Olympics so brilliantly. Glad they pulled out of RIo though. Always thought they would be taken out by someone like GE, who sold some of their US assets to Agk some years ago. Anyone got any idea what is moving the price now? Particularly after the recent downgrade,
Keith. I think it has everything to do with favourites winning for a company like Ladbroke that is all about betting shops. If you watched Cheltenham and Royal Ascot, on which a huge amount of their profits hang, they were both a disaster. Which is why the Coral merger is so important if it improves Ladbrokes presence in on line betting,
PS. We have been in Ladbrokes since day one when they first floated under the great Cyril Stein at 10/- ( we had to pay 12/6d having not got any in the allocation. In the first few years they went up by 16 times, helping a great deal towards us buying our first house. Since then they have moved in and back out of hotels through Hilton. Although we all got a big special dividend from the sale I wish they still had the hotel arm - it gave protection from any downturn in betting.
The 44 per cent drop in profits was well signalled as was the drop in the dividend to 1p from over 4p last time. The same thing will happen to the finals unless the profits improve. The company needs a few long shots coming in but the favourites keep dominating. Everything is on hold while the regulators look at the merger with Coral. If they get a green light the future could be transformed. Particularly on cost savings by rationalising the two businesses.
The fact that Lloyds still owns 65 per cent of TSB means that LBG shareholders ( including the taxpayer with its 25 percent of LBG) should be delighted to see TSB shares advance. Even if the 260p IPO price it received for its 35 percent might have been better as majority shareholders they must hope it soars.
I have been in Aggreko from day 1 when Christian Salvesen gave us the shares free. They themselves having bought it for £8m in the 1980s. It is now worth £4.5bn. One of the great success stories of the UK market. The brokers are all over the place. UBS have a price target of £22.50, whereas HSBC have £16.50. Espírito Santo (bless them) have £17. The results today were good. And the scope is endless - listening to a programme in the night about Liberia, where only 2 per cent of the population have any electricity. Too many political risks, but there are vast areas where "temporary" power is desperately needed. Having bought assets from GEC some years ago I would not be surprised if someone like them had a pop at Aggrekp. Doing something that is desperately needed and with a big market share. If not, £18 today is almost £4 above the year's low. Having sold some at £23 I am not selling any more for now.
chinch. Thanks for that. The words that I was looking for that are missing in all the papers were in the RNS. "and share consolidation". Which means that although shareholders will get 56p per share they will own a proportionately lower number of shares. So in effect it is a sale of £1bn worth of shares by shareholders back to the company, who will then cancel them. The only saving is the cost that would have been incurred in selling those shares.