Member Info for Bonz1957

That's the $64,000 question. Stay in and let it ride or switch some of the profit elsewhere - but will your choice of alternative investment do as well, or better, than IMT in the coming years? Personally I'm a hoarder rather than an active trader so will let it run until I need to cash out to fund my retirement. In the past when I've switched shares or funds I've seldom made the right choice and wish I'd stayed put. Hopefully you've seen a nice rise in your oil stocks today with BP reversing it's recent trend. ATB.

Getting closer ATB.

See if you can beat £33 for a years Fully Comp cover. At that price I'm more than happy to give them my business. ATB.

Just taken out Fully Comp insurance for the wife's car with Saga for an annual cost of £33.28 - result!! Saga's quote was £93.28 but I got £60 cashback by taking out the policy through Quidco. By looking for the cheapest quote and then getting cashback through Quidco we now have 4 cars insured - Range Rover V8, old Merc, Espace and Astra (3 of them with Saga) - all Fully Comp, for a total cost of just under £250!!! Proving that there is at least one good thing about being over 50, and driving older cars - lol!! ATB.

"As at 30 September, the Santander share (price) had increased by 9.4% over the year and 17.5% year-on-year. When added to the dividend payment, this represents a total shareholder return of 16.6% and 28.1%, respectively." ATB.

....having a positive effect on the sp!! I could think of few other Co's that that might like to try the same trick!!! ATB.

Agree totally with your comments. Who knows where we will be come next June, 7-8 months is a long time in investing. Will the FTSE have soared above 7,000, or will another Eurozone wobble have sent it crashing back to 3,500???? ATB.

Neither of those links work!! But it has already been covered in some detail in recent posts. ATB.

As they say "The Devil is in the detail" and it pays to read Offer/Rights Issue/Share re-organisation/etc documents thoroughly to ensure you fully understand exactly what is happening. I am 'Old School' and virtually all of my holdings are in certificated form which means I receive these weighty tomes through the post so can digest at my leisure. I do wonder if a lot of people who hold their shares through a broker bother to request these documents and just assume they know what is going on!! ATB.

As IMT's sp continues to soar hitting record highs surely £30 can't be far away. ATB.

...and still rising. ATB.

It would appear they have changed their code from BSY. to SKY which explains why they had disappeared from my portfolio. "In order to recognise the international scope of the business, following the acquisition (...of Sky Italia and a majority interest in Sky Deutschland...) the company will change its name to Sky, in place of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). The company will be listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol SKY." I now have the dubious honour of being the first to post on SKY - God bless her and all who sail in her!! ATB.

Thank you both for your kind comments, I may not be that good at picking a winner but I do have a reasonable knowledge of how things work, as you say built up over many years. I didn't realise the end of my post had gone missing, I thought I was inside the 2000 character limit. Anyway, all I was trying to say in that last sentence was that if you buy more shares now all that will happen is you will get some of your money back next June, i.e. 73p will be returned to you by way of the Special div and your shares will be worth 73p less - with the consolidation having the effect of keeping the sp the same but with a reduced number of shares. So, just like the VOD deal, if you have £10k of SL prior to the Special div then the value of the consolidated shares and the Special div you receive in cash will also equal £10k. There will be no gain, effectively you are selling around 18% of your holding and they are returning the money to you as a Special div. ATB.

The thing about Special divs is that they are just that - Special - and do not obey normal rules. They may be paid with an Interim or Final div or they may be paid on their own. This one may have a separate record date which will be determined by the timetable and eventual outcome of the proposed sale. The sale is due to be finalised at the end of Q1 2015 so that may well dictate any record date, with the payment expected to be towards the end of Q2 2015. As previously mentioned this Special div will be offered as either a B or C share, effectively giving you the option to take 73p as either income or as a capital gain depending on your tax situation. I will choose to take it as income as the value of all of my divs, when added to my other income will not be enough to push me into the 40% tax bracket. I would prefer not to use up any of my CGT allowance unnecessarily in case I have to sell something in the same tax year. Anyone who is already a 40% taxpayer may choose to take it as part of their CGT allowance - if not going to be used elsewhere - to avoid having to pay any extra tax. The real gainers in this will be those that were existing holders at the beginning of Sept who saw the sp rise over 30p on the news The sale and special div are now priced in so there may be little point in buying now only to get 73p back and see the value of your shares decrease by the same amount. For example, you could buy now at 401.6p and still receive the Special div, but would see the value of those shares decrease by a similar amount to 328.6p. SL then propose a consolidation to bring the sp back to current levels, which may be - in this example - 49 new for 60 old which would bring the sp back to around 402p. The sp would be the same (ish) but you would own fewer shares, therefore after the consolidation the value of your new holding plus the 73p's would equal the value of your original holding the day before consolidation - give or take the odd £1 or two. Exactly the same situation happened recently with Vodafone. A lot of people were confused into thinking that the Verizon money was a bonus and bought the shares expecting a windfall, not realising that the windfall was for those who held before the deal was announced and had seen the sp rise around 60p on the back of the deal. At the end of the day the total value of VOD before the event was exactly equal to the value of the new VOD shares along with the cash and Verizon shares one had opted for - leaving a lot of very confused people feeing very angry at the end of the day as they hadn't scooped a windfall, i.e. start with £10k of VOD, end up with £10k of VOD/cash/Verizon. Obviously the sp will rise and fall between now and the payment of the Special div but, as this event is now priced into the sp, all you will gain by buying more shares now is any rise between now and next June. Then you will get some of your money back as 73p's (15%-20% depending on the sp) and end u

Hi Tune, nice to hear from you, hope all of your investments are doing well. As far as I'm aware the deal has yet to be completed with the special dividend of 73p a share expected to be paid in May/June 2015. No record date has yet been announced so anyone holding on that date should qualify. They will be offering a B/C share alternative so you can choose to take the div as either income or a return of capital - your choice will depend on your tax position. After the special div they will be doing a share consolidation with a view to keep the share price the same, although you will hold fewer share due to the reduced value of the company. ATB. http://ukgroup.standardlife.com/content/news/new_articles/2014/030914GroupAnnouncement.xml

Just to clarify, you are only eligible for the bonus shares if you registered and bought directly through Saga - you will not get them if you bought through a broker, even if you were a customer at the time. You also lose the right to the bonus shares if you transfer them into an ISA within the 12 months. ATB.

Steve Holliday, Chief Executive, said: "After the first six months of 2014/15 National Grid remains on track to deliver another year of strong overall returns and asset growth. We continue to provide good value and strong reliability for customers while keeping our element of bills as low as possible." Interim dividend of 14.71p to be paid on 7/1/15. ATB.

"Dear Shareholder, We would like to inform you that according to the latest stress tests carried out by the European Central Bank and the European Banking Authority, Banco Santander's capital ratio is 3.5% above the minimum level required of 5.5%. This means that in the most adverse scenario Grupo Santander would exceed the required capital amount by close to Euro 20,000 million."

This has been on a steady rise from just under £5 since the RI back in 2010, at this rate we should hit £10 within the next 12 months. This has to be one of the best shares around, it has no real competitors and pays a really good dividend. In the last 4 years (Oct'10-Oct'14) taking divs as new shares has seen my holding increase by 26.6%, while the sp over the same period has increased by 57%, with the result that the value of my holding is up 98.7%!! If only all of my shares had doubled over the same period!! ATB.

Two sugars in mine please, and a slosh of vanilla syrup if you have any, thank you. IMHO definitely one of the friendlier BB's around - and long may it continue. ATB.