Significant?30 Jul 2020 12:37
Although strangely it does not seem to matter too much, after today’s sale RG will fall below 30% and would need to make a full bid (unless they got FCA approval backed by BoD) before they can hold over 30% again, in a normal world this would be significant. Without the shareholders agreement being torn up RG will sell down to 9.99% before calling a vote on any Directors that remain who he sees as unfit. There is a contradiction in JB’s statements, at least in my mind, as he states the irrevocable undertaking is to sell to zero, this would suggest that RB continue to sell at the same time as JB or another vehicle he has set up buys so he is able to still influence the vote in his favour - how would that reflect on the SP? JB tells us once the restrictive shareholder agreement has been removed he will be a buyer - presumably not through RB while the undertaking remains so unless he does a deal by buying and converting bonds and assuming he wants a significant holding then he will have to buy through the market which should mean that as drastically as the SP fell it should rise and that is just to take him back to 29.9%. I still find all this hard to understand but the opportunity from these levels is significant and that is even before we look at the opportunity that remains with the business itself once it is properly managed. Hold Hard.