Member Info for Bonz1957

"We have had a busy and productive start to the year, with the partial realisation of the Transport & Distribution division completing in April. We subsequently used some of the gross cash proceeds of £195.6m to repay fully the £100m loan with M&G Investment Management. We have since returned £31.1m cash to shareholders by the purchase of 23.6m of the Company's own shares in market transactions representing approximately 6.7% of the Company's issued share capital. With good cash realisations from our property portfolio in the last year, we repaid in March £68.1m of the £74.9m GE property loan. We are currently in a net cash position after these transactions. The Group is now operating an infrastructure and support services business operating through five divisions: Infrastructure, Energy, Aviation, Rail and Investments. Management has been reorganised to lead these divisions with particular focus on driving growth and profitability in Energy and Aviation, where the group sees significant potential. In the Energy and Aviation divisions, biomass tonnages and passenger numbers respectively are ahead year on year. New business starting in this period includes supplying the Port Talbot biomass plant and two Flybe aircraft, operated by Stobart Air, becoming based at London Southend airport. In our Infrastructure division we have realised proceeds of £4.4m from disposals of two commercial properties and we expect to continue to make healthy realisations of properties, although the timing of disposals may result in lumpy profits and cash flows. The Group remains confident of delivering growth and good returns for shareholders over the coming years as it continues its strategy of investment, optimisation and realisation."

Just the MM's balancing their books as a result of a SETS Auction. ATB.

As ever, thank you for your kind words. Have been involved in dozens of IPO's and RI's over the years so happy to pass on any relevant knowledge. I do like to read a good Prospectus :-) Unusually for me - being a bottom drawer merchant - I've recently bought into 4 IPO's and had a little foray into the penny share market for a laugh (currently only 50% down!!), and still have some VOD money left to re-invest. I'd forgotten how much fun it is buying new holdings. Hope all is well with you, your family, and that all of your holdings are doing well. ATB.

I can only assume that RangersPilot applied for £50k's worth. The first £2k would have bought 769, and 30% of the remaining £48k would have bought the other 5,538, making 6307 in total. A nice little profit. ATB.

Section E3 on P21 of the Prospectus would appear to back-up what I thought, that there will only be a maximum of 38 free shares on offer to those who purchased £2,000 or more in the IPO. It states: Those that hold their shares for 12 months with the same Intermediary shall "be entitled to receive one free and fully paid-up Bonus Share from the Selling Shareholder for every 20 Ordinary Shares so acquired and continuously held with the same Intermediary, subject to certain conditions (as set out below) and solely in respect of amounts up to £2,000 invested in Ordinary Shares in the Intermediaries Offer (meaning that a maximum of £100 of Ordinary Shares (determined on the basis of the Offer Price) will be transferred to any investor as Bonus Shares)." I.E. £100 divided by the issue price of 260p = 38 free shares. http://ipo.tddirectinvesting.co.uk/assets/pdf/TSB_IPO_Prospectus.pdf

Re the free shares, as I read it the 1 for 20 is only on the first £2,000 purchased. So as £2k bought 769 shares then the 1 for 20 equates to 38 free shares. Am sure others will be quick to correct me if I am wrong. ATB.

Thanks for the info. Not quite 81 yet and more than happy to hold certificates, even chose to hold Royal Mail that way. There are still a few brokers who accept certs without making a charge - I have an online account with X-O who are only £6 a deal and no charge to credit certs to the account - so not in any great hurry to switch everything online just yet, and it costs me nothing to hold them. Have been collecting them for nearly 40 years and they're all locked away safely in a fire proof safe. As the total value is considerably more than £85k - in fact some of my individual holdings exceed that - it would be a real headache having multiple accounts in order to stay safe. And, having retired early it's all about planning ahead, but haven't needed to cash any in yet. If ever we needed more than we could both cash in without falling foul of CGT then some of the larger holdings were PEP'd and ISA'd years ago. Hope I'm stilling monitoring my portfolio when I'm 81, and if not I'll have snuffed it and left the headache to my kids of what do with a rather large box of paper investments. Does your Dad have any good tips?? ATB.

Thanks for the update, I thought someone might correct me :-( For the recent May SCRIP, in their SSA I received 1 'right' for each share held which were then converted at the rate of 1 new share for every 47 'rights', with any left over 'rights' being sold and a cash residual being added to my account - which roughly equates to an effective div of 12.35p. Can you please confirm that is how you received your new shares, and you weren't credited with a cash div per share that was then used to buy new shares - with or without a dealing charge. As I started investing back in the mid-70's most of my holdings are in certificated form - yes I know, I'm a Luddite!! - so must admit I'm not too clued up as to exactly what kind of services these new-fangled online broker types offer. Most of my holdings - being FTSE100 - offer DRIP's or SCRIP's which are stored in a very large box. From looking at a few online sites I was never sure brokers offered these without charging, so maybe you could enlighten me. ATB.

You are talking about two very different taxes. By holding shares in their SSA you avoid the Spanish withholding tax that you would pay if you took the divs as cash. Whereas in an ISA you are protecting yourself against the dreaded CGT on profits. Pity you can't do both!! ATB.

How very nice to hear from you. I love a good DRIP or SCRIP as a means to increase my holding over time at no extra cost. Have seen the number of shares I hold in SL increase by 28% in the last four years, which along with the doubling in sp should be more than enough to fund a zimmer frame and some support stockings in my old age - which is approaching rapidly!! If only all of holdings had done as well. ATB.

As far as I'm aware - and I'm sure others will be only too quick to correct me - the only way to participate in the Santander SCRIP scheme is to hold your shares in their SSA account, as I do. Most brokers will allow cash dividends, once credited to your account, to be used to purchase new shares if you so wish but you will usually have to pay a dealing cost. Brokers are - I think - not able to offer the company's DRIP or SCRIP scheme as your shares are held in a nominee account with 100's of other investors, some of whom will want cash while others will choose to re-invest. I am something of a Luddite with virtually all of my holdings in certificated form, allowing me to participate in DRIP's and SCRIP's with little or no dealing charges. This is a great way to grow your holdings over time with little in the way of additional cost. In fact the number of shares in BNC I hold has grown 43% in 4 yrs inside their SSA.

The average price paid for the shares bought for the DRIP was 399.1556p, but when the dealing charge and SDRT are added in it rises to 403.15p. So, multiply your holding by 10.58p and divide by 403.15p to give the number of shares you are likely to be credited with. When the balance brought forward from the last DRIP is added, you may have enough to buy 1 extra share. ATB.

My Cert arrived today so you should have yours soon. ATB.

The ISA limit is only on what you can contribute each tax year. Once inside an ISA your holding can generate as much in divs and capital growth as it likes without having any effect on your limit. ATB.

It's very easy to update a figure online, but takes longer for the right person to print out a cert and send it via snail mail!! ATB.

Good set of Half-Yearly results for the six months ended 31 March 2014. The interim dividend of 1.0p per share for the six months ending 31 March 2014 and the special dividend of 7.0p per share will both be paid on 11 July 2014, to those shareholders on the register on 13 June 2014, withy NAV rising to 46.1p. "Since 30 September 2013 the Fund has made a number of successful disposals. In particular, Hydrobolt has been fully realised resulting in a profit in the current period of £5,563,000. The increase in value at the date of disposal represented an uplift in NAV of 5.7p per share. This is a significant return of 4 times the original investment cost in Hydrobolt which at the last year end was our largest investment by value, accounting for 27% of the unquoted portfolio. The realisation of this investment not only delivered a good uplift in value but also provides the opportunity to diversify the portfolio through new investments."

RSA announces sale of its majority-owned Canadian insurance brokerage business for an aggregate price of CAD $500m. The transaction is expected to result in a gain on sale of approximately £140m and is expected to add pproximately £225m to the Group’s tangible net assets, improving the Group’s capital strength.

There is to be no 2013 Final div, which would have been paid in the next week or so. However, in the last results there was talk of the possibility of a token 2014 Interim div, to be paid in |Nov, with the prospect of a return to a full div with the 2014 Final due this time next year.

Not as yet. As it only became effective a week ago I wouldn't expect the new share certs for at least another week or two.

...an even larger fall. I'll get me coat!! ATB.