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Thanks you Sportstrader. Orph bit starts around 1:05:00

My key takeaways:
Themis sold to Merck for an estimated £100m-£500m, Imutex is a very similar company, and probably worth more than that. The Merck deal came out of nowhere a few days ago, and may open up other options for monetising Imutex. If sold (Novartis mentioned several times) cash would be returned to holders, probably as a dividend.

ORPH now have no fewer than 4 transformational projects, each one of them credible and active. Any one of them succeeding would likely result in a substantially higher valuation.

Poor choice of words describing the deal as "material" in size, considering the typical size of Nanoco's materials!

I think that article has been posted here before Pete. The journalist appears to be reaching vaguely for a defence, but I think most people here agreed that QDVisions technology doesn't really amount to a credible susbstitute for Nanocos scalable production process which Samsung seem to have somehow emulated.

The huge dividend is a tremendous consolation and relief for long term holders. It's remarkable that the people piling into M&G right now have all missed out on both the dividend, and the one-off special dividend, yet suddenly see value here. Does anyone else feel the market has a slightly skewed view of M&Gs business, to have marked it down so severely? If so, is that view likely to change?

You are absolutely correct Jatw, apologies for the confusion. That makes it a much more significant move. I read somewhere that the platform which eventually evolved into Ascentric was first developed by Prudential, so they sort of bought it back. I wonder if the decision was made by someone at M&G who was connected to the original project.

Sorry, that's all I've got.

You insist it's an "assumption", but the imminent change is a fact. It is wrong to describe it as a "placing", or even a potential placing, but that's just semantics: the underlying point is that shares will become sellable, when they were previously locked up, wouldn't you agree? No-one has assumed they will be sold, AFAIK, just pointed out the new possibility.

"There will be no secondary placing I assure you.
Its actually quite annoying that you insist there will be"

Apologies in advance, but it seems to me you are the only one insisting Stioc? By the way, nice to see a bit of pointless antagonism on this board: back in the day it was just me talking nonsense to myself.

Correct attitude re correction. Up over 50% in the last 20 days. Reset and go again.

Why are so many terrified and defensive about derampers? They only have a temporary effect, if any, and at worst they merely create buying opportunities. They are the best thing which ever happened to you, yet you turn them away. {violin music} How can you be so cruel? [tragic pose]

Can't give you any pointers as to future price direction Rook, but why not cash in the 120% profit out and leave the original stake - then you get a 'free ride' and you're up whatever happens?

Further evidence of M&Gs strength, they announce the acquisition of a digital platform from Royal London with over 90,000 underlying customers. It adds £14 million to funds under management (not 14 billion, as the headline claims, unfortunately!)
https://www.lse.co.uk/news/top-news-m-and-g-adds-gbp14-billion-to-assets-with-ascentric-purchase-kcjkxe5qfcgd2eh.html

John Foley said "we are well positioned to acquire assets at competitive prices. "
The message seems to be: strength, strength, muscle flexing pea****, hoo hah.

Good point Spikeyj. The figures so far look much much better than I expected, and surely the market has marked down M&G way too far if the effect of the pandemic on them has been so mild? If there is even a possibility of the dividend policy being maintained, M&G will not only deserve a re-rating back to previous levels, but will also have gained an immediate reputation as a reliable dividend payer, ahead of many rivals, and even defying the powers that be in order to keep faith with their shareholders.

Funds under management only down about 8.5% in the last quarter - surely better than expected?

"Total assets under management and administration came in at £323 million as at 31 March, down from £352 million at the end of 2019. M&G said the fall largely reflected the shock to markets in March from the disruption associated with the outbreak of Covid-19."

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/mg-ploughs-on-with-410m-dividend-despite-regulator-calls-a4451466.html

"shareholder Solvency II coverage ratio said to be "comfortably above" its risk appetite throughout the crisis, standing at 168% as at 31 March.
The FTSE 100 firm said that, given its financial strength and the importance of dividends to investors, it would pay its dividends of £410m - comprising an ordinary dividend of 11.92p per share and a special demerger dividend of 3.85p - on 29 May, as it had previously announced"

The financial strength is great news. Awaiting outlook, more to come.

Hopeingmore, I agree anyone thinking they might have cancelled would already have sold, but my argument implies that there would be no incentive for them to buy back because the dividend policy which made them invest in the first place had been expunged. Awaiting comments on the future outlook for dividends from management, but the above statement about financial strength gives reason to hope it might be better than I predicted.

There has been a lot of ongoing change, involving heavy investment in software, factories, closures of older facilities etc. I suspect they may be in a sweet spot right now, despite the pandemic, but hard to be sure, and they have suspended dividends.

Richard Beddard wrote a substantial favourable piece a few days ago: https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/xp-power-one-my-favourite-companies-ii511791

I stopped monitoring Lombard Odiers hilariously unsuccessful shorting, but it looks like they eventually cut their losses and closed the position completely. I went long at almost exactly the same time they went short. Vindicated!

19p is an outdated future. Thomas got upgraded to an OO bullet train. People get ready.

I laugh in the face of 19p.

Getting vertigo though: it only went over 10p 19 days ago!

Americans on board, Russians on board, time the Chinese boarded this OO gauge train?

Thanks Jatw. Although my opinion is usually wrong, that is purely due to highly questionable reasoning. Misinformation is reserved for explaining tardiness and cheating at Scrabble.

No other cancellations so close to the payment date though, Panderman? The odds seem very strongly in favour of a highly rewarding divi for M&G holders this week. Fingers and toes crossed. After that, the perceived prospects for future payments will be one of the main things driving the SP, imo, along with Pandemic 2.0, Brexit 5.?, and the four horsemen of misinformation.

Of course I'm not CH, as a long term commenter on this board, why would I do that? To state that the price will definitely not fall on payment of the dividend is just your opinion: stating it as a fact is in itself mis-information. No one knows.

Payment of the dividend seems like an obvious trigger for any potential sellers who have been holding on waiting for it, especially in the unusual current circumstances. The dramatically changed prospects for future dividends are a factor which will be highlighted either explicitly or implicitly at the same time as the dividend payment, so splitting hairs on that issue is pointless, it is another reason why a drop could arguably occur. That is not mis-information, it is reasoned opinion on what the share price might do, nothing more or less.

Technically, it's true that paying the dividend does not automatically result in a price fall. No one said that. The point being made was that seekers of dividends will have previously topped up on M&G either because it was already one of the top dividend payers, or because, unlike many, it did not cancel the dividend. The reasons many holders may sell once the dividend is paid is either because the dividend was the sole reason for their holding, or that they were long-term holders based on the progressive dividend policy and now face an official or likely revision to that policy. This is obviously just an opinion, not a fact, and certainly not "serious mis-information".