Member Info for AllAtSea

..as we all know, the automotive sector is highly secretive about its developments. If I was seeking to do business with these giants I was be more concerned about saying too much about deals than too little.

"Oldsilkroad - My guess is for a lower bid that comes with big rewards for Directors."

How cynical!

I was a Stadium Group holder. It was a good company in the internet of things field and in May 17 everything was rosy. The shares took a dive in October 17 for no reason except maybe 'supply problems'. Went from 137 to 80, then early this year they were back to 90 and a a takeover by TTG was announced. We got 120 for our shares and I put the proceeds into TTG at 200 before I'd heard of SEE.

It'll be pure coincidence that Jack Boyer is a non-executive director at TTG and also the new Chairman at SEE.

Three tech stocks and one pharma. And two are not what they were a month ago.

Today:

http://citywire.co.uk/money/hargreaves-weve-never-seen-uk-investors-this-bearish/a1156706?ref=citywire-money-latest-news-list

"Hargreaves: we've never seen UK investors this bearish
Investor confidence in UK stock market plunges to lowest level Hargreaves Lansdown has ever recorded in its regular survey of clients."

and whilst there is little point looking for the Jonah..

"September's 58-point reading is one point below its previous low of 59, recorded in November 2016, shortly after the Brexit vote and the month Donald Trump was elected US president.

It's lower than readings produced in the months of the financial crisis, the eurozone crisis, and the bursting of the dotcom bubble."

..I'd like a forecast on when we'll get a fair wind..

Hmm.. Jack's versus Amazon.

Doubt if Aldi or Lidl are going to be Tesco's real competitor anyway.

Sadly I don't expect this to resurge whilst Bexit approaches. My portfolio is like a map of the Pacific - a few islands, while most of it is under water!

Hargeaves Lansdowne today for what it is worth:

" Luke Jensen, head of Ocado's Smart Platform, will surely be walking into meetings with potential partners with a spring in his step. He's already exceeded most expectations, and there could yet be more deals to come.

With Ocado in the growth phase, dividends are unlikely in the foreseeable future. However, we think the group's right to allocate every penny to making the most of the opportunities in front of it.

Investors shouldn't forget the positive impact on the income statement won't be felt for some years yet, and a dramatically increased share price puts pressure on it to execute smoothly. Still, Ocado will be delighted to be in this position.

An added bonus is its largest UK sites are now online, which gives Ocado the chance to show other interested parties what it can do on a grander scale."

.. I should have topped up yesterday.

Read that Lindsell Train shares trade at a premium of nearly 50% above NAV, popular because they have focussed on steady bets like Unilever at a time of volatility. i.e. Unilever's action demonstrates there is more than one kind of volatility and it impacts LT's USP.

Also if Unilever claims that its UK listing exposes them to foreign predators then perhaps they have a point.

Apparently Aviva is getting sucked into the debate (you know the one) because Unilever are proposing shifting their HQ to der Nederlands. Once departed Unilever will no longer be constituent of the FTSE 100 and Aviva will be obliged to sell its holding. Obviously another company will replace Unilever so Aviva can rebalance its investments accordingly I'd imagine.

Isn't this kind of adjustment what might be expected in the light of the UK's decision to leave the EU?

Your one-liner tells me little, however here is a rather downbeat assessment of Carrefour:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-carrefour-results/french-retailer-carrefour-cautious-on-2018-as-sales-growth-slows-idUSKBN1HI2ZL

"PARIS (Reuters) - Carrefour (CARR.PA) gave a cautious outlook for this year after sales growth slowed in the first quarter, with continued weakness in its core French market suggesting that the supermarket chain faces a long road to recovery."

..and an interesting assessment of Casino:

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-31/casino-s-a-decent-grocer-shame-about-the-owner

Whilst neither sounds a great investment opportunity I would still suggest that Casino is a better partner for Ocado even if it is a gamble!

"Carrefour rather than Casino would have been fantastic news, it would have been a great partnership as Kroger is now for Ocado"

Not a lot wrong with Casino. They are very focussed on upgrading with new technology and their sales performance in 2018 has beaten Carrefour both domestically and abroad. Companies like Carrefour that have bet on hypermarket developments are beginning to realise their error and that small and online is money better spent.

Ssshhh! Don't tell anyone..

"I read that Carney sees a house market crash happening over the next 3yrs, near 30% correction. "

Fake news alert!

Carney was presenting a series of outcome scenarios to senior cabinet ministers, the worst of which was a no-deal apocalypse now situation. That was the one where house prices fall 30-35%. It was a confidential meeting but details were leaked.

Of course headline writers had a field day but in most cases the following article gave the lie to the headline.

Clearly £6m in buy backs is a token effort. e.g. I see that there was a single purchase late yesterday : 1243222 shares at 477.50p costing £5,936,385.05. Who did that? Sounds impressive except Aviva has nearly 4bn shares in issue. So yes, £6m is petty cash - like trying to push a supertanker with a feather.

..despite Booker, Tesco are still languishing. They are fortunate in having a very large number of holders whose buy-in price was far too high to sell at this point, many of whom talk up the company without any substance for optimism. It is a company that has lost its sector leadership as demonstrated by its latest wheeze: 'Jacks'. An mere attempt to ape its competition and with a poor choice of name - they should have called it 'Lemon'.. The current sp might look like an opportunity but it's one best given a wide berth IMO.

..so I don't know if this has been aired:

Volvo Cars and its Chinese owner Geely have postponed plans to float shares in the Swedish carmaker, blaming trade tensions and a downturn in automotive stocks.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/volvo-cars-drops-ipo-due-to-trade-tensions-and-auto-stocks-downturn-10701612

Until the USA and China stop scrapping (not to mention the B-word) how can we tell what's going to crawl out of the woodwork and clobber stock markets? Nothing good right now.

Gather Steve Hare CFO has taken over with the possibility of the move being permanent. He's no relation of Marconi's Steve Hare, I'm sure but..

Anyway, wish every one a good weekend. I am off on holiday and won't be worrying about Sage for a while.

..and now Costa. So maybe Vodafone very soon.

for me. I hold a dozen stocks, 7 are at a loss and 5 are in profit. Thankfully the 5 outweigh the 7 and recently I took profits on 2 (GSK, AHT).

Am poised to spend on VOD but not sure yet.

Amazon has come out UK's most trusted retailer ahead of John Lewis, M&S, never mind the supermarkets.

Prefer ebay, meself.