George Frangeskides, Chairman at ALBA, explains why the Pilbara Lithium option ‘was too good to miss’. Watch the video here.
Early stage merger talks with Mondi
Another manager has chucked £50K into the hat.
Sangijuelas, I do accept that there are many Investment Trusts (IT) that hold listed equities, however, III, PEY and AUGM, which are among the IT which I hold are principally comprised unlisted companies though at different stage of life. If we accept that investing in seed and fledgling companies need very different resource from those which are at the stage to either be spun off as a quoted company or divest to the needs appropriate to the development of that business.
Some businesses require cash, others need introductions to build sales and some need skilled people for compliance.
As far as I am concerned, my cash investment in GROW would, if the IT were wound up tomorrow probably be completely worthless if bean counters from an insolvency outfit were engaged. On the other hand, GROW has a stake in plenty of companies and perhaps a few will be a runaway success in time. It is a risk that I am prepared to take. As a general rule, I tend to comment publicly where I am worried or find the quality of discussion does not merit engagement. (AFC, EZJ, BEG for instance).
There is still 100% for the share price to fall. My hunch is that the NAV is overstated as far as the broad investing community is concerned. That the managers have dipped into their pockets to buy shares, is incidental.
It is always disheartening when the value of an investment falls, more so when there is a chasm between the value of the underlying assets and the market capital of the holding company. It is not unusual for a small discount or premium to apply from time to time from MOST investment trusts, and, for the most part such variation tends to be in the region of 5% premium and 12%-15% discount.
Anything outside these figures generally merits investigation. More often than not, the gap closes to be in the range noted above. If the underlying valuation is wrong, it will distort the numbers. If the managers have a poor track record, then that will put pressure on the discount. Investment trust managers can (and often do) buy shares in the market and hold them in treasury to take advantage of unusual gaps and sell them at a later date when the price benefits the company.
My hunch is that there is insufficient cash to allow the trust to buy shares in the market and take advantage of the discount and that there is an institutional holder that is dumping their holding. I'm not convinced that the valuation is correct. The managers might have have stretched their rope a little too much and be close to breaking point. If the valuations are broadly correct and an institutional holder is really upset, it is possible that the Trust could be wound up to put an end to the miserable share price performance. Panic does not help in a decision making process but speculation can be beneficial.
Of course, this is not a holding for widows and orphans. Just the musings of an old duffer, so take with a scoop of salt.
Wish I knew. I’ve an idea that III which has been in wifes ISA for 20 years could be a 30 bagger. But over the last 50 years I can honestly state that I have bought just one share at the absolute bottom and lost count of the companies that promised much and returned little.
I have high hopes that AFC energy will do well, but until the company generates sales it remains speculative. Probably have 30 years of life remaining and 35 for wife. Portfolio remains structured for capital growth and risk at HIGH.
High interest rates are here for another 6 weeks. The reality is that they are not that high when compared with the long term, simply high for recent memory.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/06/credit-card-balances-jump-to-new-1point13-trillion-record-at-end-of-2023.html
This link shows that credit card balances are rising (29% rings a bell for some reason, though I have not used a credit card for a decade or more) and https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/06/credit-card-delinquencies-surged-in-2023-indicating-financial-stress-new-york-fed-says.html that there are defaults.
The UK tends to lag the US by a few weeks. Gold is hovering a little off its highs but is stable. https://goldprice.org/
This SHOULD translate to pride a boost to the SP but at worst simply limit the downside. Very rarely, I have marked this as a weak buy - not investment advice, simply an old duffer with an opinion and some basic supporting narrative.
Oh, and as far as I am concerned, "weak buy" is not as strong as "buy" and a long way behind "strong buy". Almost 100% of my posts have "no opinion" as my default. And now, I have an appointment with a fresh glass of claret as the tide appears to have gone out.
FWIW, I have sold a further tranche of my NVDA holding - think it is a little frothy at the moment. It was my first 100 bagger
Spinal_Tap, the dividend payment will be reflected by a corresponding drop in the share price. If this is a candidate for a bid, it is likely that a substantial premium needs to be offered to tempt shareholders. The positive side is that the company is profitable, throws off lots of cash has gold trading at record highs and has holiday season to kick off in an Olympic year. Airlines are noting bookings are rising.
Expansion is happenning organically for RFX and there has been some press comment that de-banking of pawnbrokers has taken place. This does allow opportunity to grow through acquisition. With the exception of Albermarle & Bond and H&T, not sure that there is any more competition that has capacity to put a bid forward. Management buyout, I suppose but would need to have quite deep pockets.
Have added a few more today. Seems a great entry point to me, though disappointing that the shares remain in the doldrums.
I've taken advantage of the facility to dispose of holding at nil cost to nurse a small loss.
I note that a manager has purchased 10,000 shares. They tend to have their fingers on the pulse. I've put an order in too though for fewer shares.
Investing in businesses that might be the future Amazon/Alphabet/Apple etc is a bit like advertising where half the advertising spend is a total waste of money, though it is never known which half is wasted.
While all the companies in which there is investment have interesting and decent stories to tell, it is far too early in their lifecycle and the cutting edges that are being developed to know where the superstars will be. I don't need to know anything about any of the companies in the portfolio at all because I trust that the managers of Molten Ventures plc do know what they are doing, do understand which businesses are thriving and which are struggling.
I am trusting their judgement to provide either management expertise, marketing flair or cash for individual businesses in the portfolio. For instance, I own shares in a tiny food company based in the Hebrides - I know nothing about commercial food production or how to sell to put soups or steaks onto supermarket shelves but I can read a balance sheet and a profit and loss account. At the point when I invested my cash, I wrote that cash off. it is the same with GROW and NVDA, and MSFT and some 80+ other equities, IT's and ETF's. They ONLY have a value when sold.
As far as I am concerned, a discount of 80% on the NAV either means that they trust is doomed or someone somewhere has got things wrong - that could be me or the wider market. If the discount were 70% would I feel less worried? I doubt it - what about 50% etc
There is considerable similarity between a fund and an investment trust (IT), the main difference is in the underlying foundation, one is open ended, the other closed. I like IT’s as the shares can be traded even if the underlying assets held by the IT cannot.
Might not like the price offered, but can get out or buy more during market hours. The IT can also buy its own shares and hold those in treasury to resell them at a later date. We have currently effectively a business that itself is not in distress but its underlying assets are. Hence we see a “discount” of some 80% on the NAV.
I feel that interest rattes will be the catalyst to give confidence to investors. A little more time in the doldrums seems probable…… do I add more now or wait and rely on broader confidence and face a changed price?
There is a problem with this site through its myriad of advertisements. Occasionally, one or more rogue ones cause the entire content of a mssage to disappear, part way through its creation.
From time to time, I am able to copy content and hold it either in memory or, depending on the device, paste into an application that does not have such intrusion. I fear this was one such happenning, coupled with predictive text and both the inability to edit and my reluctance to put a final proof in place.
It will no doubt be applauded if I never mention Graphcore again.
Asartara, Graphcore is trying to compete against NVDA (I have held shares in NVDA for 12 years though sold 90 of them last year) and AMD. It managed to spin off some of its AI technology to Meta (Facebook). I am not familiar with its remaining products so as far as I am concerned it is a bit of a lame duck with no obvious product in development. Could be doing it an injustice, but its value as far as i am concerned, is nil.
The revenue for the most part was in the machine learning element which as been sold. The remaining staff on the Azure platform is likely to be superceded by the investment that MSFT (again have shares there) in ChatGPT
Hope this clarifies things.
Another disappointing day for shareholders
At the risk of stating the obvious….. interest rates, tension in middle east that could cause oil to spike, job security, political dithering etc. FWIW, I believe that the SP has had a good run and borne out with recent news. Thngs are in the open and there is no ne news.
Managers are not buying and there are no rumours. Investors are selling the facts and will return to buy the rumours in time.
Never wrong to bank a profit
Nope.
Markets can be irrational. Interest rates are held for the time being in US and UK.
There has been comment on Graphcore and if it has anything to do with graphene, then it is correct to write it off as a distraction and without any meaningful revenue.
Investing in early stage ventures is ALWAYS exciting. It is not for widows and orphans but DEFINITELY for trhe long term investor prepared to wait patiently. The advantage of investing in an Investment Trust is that dealings in the shares remains liquid even if the underlying holdings are not. What is being valued currently is the illiquidity of the underlying investments in todays semi-joined up environment
Sadly, steph, the first real opportunity to create a Sovereign Fund was when oil began flowing from the N Sea. That was 50 years ago. The next would have been at either Golden or Diamond anniversary of the late Queen.
Although it might seem that the UK has missed all the growth, I think not. Placing say half the proceeds from IHT (and although the executors of my late parents estate paid almost £1m as IHT) I am in favour of keeping it (but mitigating as much as I can) into such a fund would have fantastic consequence in 20 or 40 years time.
Even if growth were at a pedestrian 5%, the effect of compounding with contributions from IHT added annually for say just 5 years, capital growth would be tremendous and begin to tackle the most pressing concerns. I suggest education should be the first, followed by sea defence
Of course, markets never go up (or down) in a straight line but the more mature markets do tend to move in unison. Admittedly, as a rather lazy owner of equities/investment trusts etc, I tend to sell holdings on UP days and buy on DOWN ones.
A correction of 16% or thereabouts this year from recent highs does provide temptation to buy as the share price had become rather frothy. I don't think we are in oversold territory, but the price is becoming ever more tempting.