Member Info for Bonz1957

Of course if you are a higher rate tax-payer AND will use all of your CGT allowance then you would be better off taking the return of capital option and paying the extra CGT. You would only be taxed an extra 10% for exceeding the £11,100 allowance (28% tax instead of 18%) whereas you would have to pay an extra 22.5% on the gross dividend as a higher rate tax-payer. Hope this helps. ATB.

Can't fault your maths Gerry557, very similar to my post of 17/1. Shadrack: They will be offering a B/C share option when it comes to how you take the 73p Special Div. One option allows the div to be taxed as Income Tax just like a normal div - useful if you are only a basic rate tax-payer and want to keep your CGT allowance for other gains made during the year. The other option allows the div to be treated as a return of capital and will count towards your CT allowance - useful if you are a higher rate tax-payer (and don't want to pay the top-slice on your div) or if you will not make enough gains in the year to exceed your CGT allowance (£11,100 for 15/16 - and remember this is your gain after deducting the base cost of the shares and not the amount you receive). You will in due course be sent a form asking for your choice of how the div is to be paid, make sure you choose the option that is the most tax efficient for you - the amount you receive will be the same. ATB.

Nice to see this back above £5. Well done to all those who like me topped up when the sp was around 325p only two months ago. More than makes up for some of my other top-ups - namely BNC - which haven't done so well. ATB.

Apologies if I have mislead anyone. I know that the bonus shares were only available to eligible customers, sadly that ruled me out, but had read that they had to be held with them. Obviously if you have the welcome booklet which states that is not the case, then those eligible customers who either hold them in a nominee account or as a cert will also benefit. At least the sp now seems to be moving in the right direction after the announcement of the deal with Bennetts, so hopefully that will keep the detractors at bay for a while. And we are all now in profit, even those of us who don't have the bonus shares to look forward to. ATB.

Apologies for getting your name wrong - I've sacked the proof reader!! ATB.

You were only ever eligible for the bonus shares if you registered as a customer, applied online and held the shares with them. I also applied online and asked for a certificate, but as I wasn't a customer at the time I knew I wouldn't get the bonus shares. Still at least we are currently back in profit, even if only by 0.9p!!! ATB.

Hi mj653, no sign f this struggling to stay at £30, so how long before we hit £35?? ATB.

As previously stated, you will ONLY be eligible for the bonus shares if you submitted an Online Application and elected to hold your Shares through the Saga Shareholder Account or Saga Share Direct, if you bought through an intermediary then you are NOT eligible for the bonus shares. Rule No.1: Always read the prospectus. It clearly stated: "Eligible Customers who acquire Shares under the Customer Offer and Eligible Employees who acquire Shares under the Employee Offer and hold them for a continuous period of one year following Admission will be eligible to receive at the end of that one year period one Free Share for every twenty Shares acquired in the Customer Offer or the Employee Offer (as applicable) and still retained, subject to certain conditions."

Now showing a 50% gain on my top-up @ 320p just over a month ago, and nicely back in profit overall. £5 soon?? ATB.

Saga acquires iconic British motorbike insurance company Bennetts. "Acquisition highlights: Bennetts is the most customer-endorsed bike insurer in the market, with over 200,000 current customers. Saga provides insurance services for 20,000 customers with motorbikes. 43% of Bennetts customers are over 50 years of age, and 77% over 40 years of age. Access to Saga's database of 10.6m people will allow Bennetts to drive further growth. Saga will pay £26.26 million in cash for the entire share capital of Bennetts. The acquisition is in line with Saga's strategy to expand its insurance offering via broked services."

To be paid 27/3. ATB.

A little research shows that Stagecoach, like many other operators, hedge their fuel costs for several months or even years in advance - they do not just pop down to cheapest pumps to fill up. While this does give them some stability in the cost of the fuel they use it does mean that when prices fall they may well be using fuel bought up to a year earlier at a higher cost. What they will be doing now is buying fuel for future use at todays cheaper prices, meaning they will not be hit as hard when/if prices rise, and may be able to hold off increasing prices for a while. In their Interim results of 10/12/14 they state "The Group’s operations as at 31 October 2014 consume approximately 399.2m litres of diesel fuel per annum. As a result, the Group’s profit is exposed to movements in the underlying price of fuel. The Group’s fuel costs include the costs of delivery and duty as well as the costs of the underlying product. Accordingly, not all of the cost varies with movements in oil prices. The proportion of the Group’s projected fuel usage (excluding any fuel required by a new East Coast rail franchise) that is now hedged using fuel swaps is as follows: Year ending 30 April 2015 - 83%, Year ending 30 April 2016 - 63%." So they had already hedged 60% of the fuel they were projecting to use in the year to 30/4/16 before today's cheaper prices.

Just taken out a policy with Saga for my V8 Range Rover - £88 for a year Fully Comp. That's now 3 car policies I have with Saga so they must still be doing something right even if the sp is lower than it was at flotation. ATB.

RNS 23/01/15: Update on disposal of Canadian business and proposed return of value to shareholders. "The disposal remains on track to complete in early 2015. Following completion of the transaction, it is proposed to return around £1.75bn (equivalent to 73p per share) to shareholders by way of a B/C share scheme and carry out a share consolidation, as previously announced. The share consolidation is intended to reduce the number of shares in issue by approximately the same ratio as the return of value per share to the share price. The Autumn Statement published on 3 December 2014, proposed changes to the tax treatment of special purpose share schemes (commonly known as 'B or B/C share schemes') from 6 April 2015. The Company currently expects that the return to shareholders and share consolidation will take place prior to 6 April 2015, and ahead of the final dividend record date. As a consequence the final dividend would be paid on the resulting number of ordinary shares after the consolidation." Proposed 2014 Final div dates: Ex-div date - 9 April 2015, Record date - 10 April 2015, Payment date - 19 May 2015. "As the Company currently expects to execute a return of value and share consolidation prior to 6 April 2015. The final dividend would therefore be paid on the resulting number of shares in issue at 10 April 2015 following the consolidation."

This will need to be a lot higher than £5 before I consider dancing in the Isles or Aisles. £5 barely gets us back to where we were before the 1:5 consolidation last May, and now there is no div. ATB.

£50 reached for the first time. Nice upward graph from the end of 2012, where to next? Just had my DRIP statement through for the 2015 Interim div. There can't be too many shares around where you are left with £46.93 carried forward to the next div because it isn't enough to buy an extra share. ATB.

Reached today. ATB.

They ARE paying a Special div, 73p by way of a B/C share scheme due in Q2 '15. They are selling part of the business - the SL we will own after the event will be a smaller entity so there is no gain to be made - and they will do things in the most tax efficient way they can. If the extra paperwork involved is seen as an inconvenience then that is all part of owning shares. ATB.

The 3rd paragraph should have read.....(49 x 321p = £157.29/40 = 393.2p). I'm blaming the kitten for running across my keyboard!!! ATB.

-The consolidation will be whatever is required to keep the sp the same both before and after the Special div. If you take the current sp as an example then it would be 394p before the div and 321p after. In order to get the sp back to 394p the consolidation could be in the order of 40 new shares for every 49 old shares. So you start with 1,000 shares at 394p = £3,940. After the Special div you have 1,000 shares at 321p = £3,210 PLUS 1,000 x 73p = £730 in cash. £3,210 (shares) + £730 (cash) = £3,940 and you are no worse off. They then consolidate those 321p shares at the rate of say 40 new for every 49 held. (49 x 321p =£15.29/40 = 393.2p) Before the event the shares were worth 394p, after the event 393.2 - close enough. I'm sure they will employ better brains than mine to get a closer result. Your 1,000 shares at 321p become 1000/49 *x 40 = 816.33 new shares at 393.2p. The 0.33 fraction of a new share will probably come back to you as a cheque for £1.29, leaving you with 816 new shares at 393.2p = £3,208.51. Starting with 1,000 shares at 394p = £3,940, you end up with 816 new shares at 393.2p = £3,208.51 plus the £1.29 fraction plus the £730 Special div cash. A total of £3,939.80 - within 20p of what you started with. You have to take the Special div, there is no way you can opt out - short of selling your shares before the event. As I previously said the value of your holding before the div will equal the value of your holding and the cash you receive - give or take a £1 or two. Look at it as taking out about 18% of your investment without having to pay any dealing costs. Just make sure when they give you the choice as to how you want to receive your cash - either as Income or as a Return of Capital - that you carefully choose the option that is most tax efficient for you. ATB.