Member Info for Bonz1957

Taken from RNS 2391H: Thorntons PLC ("Thorntons" or "the Company") today announced its interim results for the 28 weeks ended 9th January 2010. The Company reported significantly improved profitability which is mainly due to reduced levels of discounting in Own Stores during the period before Christmas and more profitable sales within the Commercial channel. Although overall sales were down 0.7% year on year, sales of Thorntons' branded products, excluding private label products, across all channels increased by 5.5%. § Profit before tax increased by 24.6% to £9.1 million (2009: £7.3 million) § Revenues of £127.4 million declined by 0.7% (2009: £128.4 million) § Interim dividend increased by 62.5% to 1.95 pence per share (2009: 1.20p) § Gross margins increased 1.6% year on year to 50.8% § Net debt reduced by £1.7 million to £14.6 million against the same period last year § Earnings per share increased by 184.4% to 9.4p (2008: 3.3p) Mike Davies, Thorntons Chief Executive, said:"I am pleased to be able to report a significantly improved profit performance for the first six months which was assisted by our decision to avoid heavy discounting of prices in our retail outlets. Although the sales volume recorded from our shops suffered a slight decline, sales of Thorntons' branded products across all channels, excluding private label products, increased by 5.5 percent. "We are in the process of adding several products to our offering and have just launched the new Easter range in our stores. Going forward we will continue to focus on reducing our dependency on Christmas by investing in products that drive sales in the traditionally quieter summer months. We therefore expect to be able to continue to improve our performance in the second half, which is historically loss-making."

All is not well in the world of Ten Pin Bowling. 18 January 2010 ESSENDEN PLC ("Essenden" or the "Company") Trading Statement and Directorate Change Essenden wishes to update the market with regard to the Company's recent trading. Like for like outlet sales, for the 52 weeks ended 27 December 2009, were down8.0 per cent. against the comparable period, ended 28 December 2008. Since Essenden last reported, the second half of 2009, has shown an improving trend in like for like outlet sales. For the 26 weeks ended 28 June 2009, likef or like outlet sales declined 11 per cent., whilst like for like outlet sales for the 26 weeks ended 27 December 2009 declined only 4.6 per cent. The business continued with its cost focused measures in the second half of 2009, which the board of the Company (the "Board") believes has mitigated the impact of the sales decline on EBITDA performance. Net Debt, as at 27 December 2009, was £3.6 million (2008: £4.0 million). Net Debt was higher than market expectations, due to the timing of certain working capital flows which, combined with the amortisation of financing costs, will result in higher interest charges for the year. This will affect profit before tax (before exceptional items), which the Board now expects to be at the broadly break even level, for the 52 weeks ended 27 December 2009.

McBride plc 4 February 2010 McBride plc, Europe's leading provider of Private Label Household and Personal Care products, announces its Half Year Report for the six months ended 31 December 2009 · Revenue up 5% to £412.4m (2008: £392.2m) · Adjusted operating profit1 improved to £26.5m (2008: £14.3m). Reported operating profit was £25.5m (2008: £7.8m). Adjusted operating margin1 improved from 3.6% to 6.4% · Adjusted diluted earnings per share1 were up 106% to 9.7 pence (2008: 4.7p). Reported diluted earnings per share were 9.2p (2008: 2.0p) · Return on capital employed1 improved to 26.6% (2008: 12.7%) · Interim dividend per share increased 18% to 2.0 pence (2008: 1.7p) · Continuing strong cash flow with net cash generated from operations before exceptional items at £48.8m (2008: £27.7m). Net debt reduced £13.0m in the six months to 31 December 2009 to £69.4m · Today we have announced that we are entering into consultation to restructure and consolidate our Italian operations with an estimated cash cost of £6.5m and a 3 year payback Miles Roberts, Chief Executive, commented: "These results demonstrate that our Private Label strategy, which focuses on growing higher margin products, operational efficiencies and tight cash management, is working well. There has been good sales growth in our core categories including Personal Care. All our divisions have posted higher operating profits and returns. Net debt has reduced to £69.4m and we are pleased to announce an 18% increase in our interim dividend. Trading since the end of December has been in line with our expectations and whilst our markets remain highly competitive we are confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year."

It looks like it could be a difficult 6 months ahead. We saw a great rise from the lows in March'09 to mid Jan then the wheels fell off bigtime. IMHO it will be the high risk stuff that will take the biggest hammering and a lot of people will learn the hard way that what goes up can come back down even more quickly. Those that have bought into a well ramped penny share on the rise may well see it fall below their entry point and end up on a paper loss. The Golden Rule being do not play with money you cannot afford to lose. This share along with the other utilities are good defensive stocks to hold in times like these, they should not suffer too much and will continue to pay a good div. I am almost exclusively invested in FTSE 100 Co's but am still showing quite a drop from mid Jan levels. Have been investing for 30 tears and am in this for the long term so know this will eventually recover, just hope we do not see it return to Mar '09 levels.

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, and some Chinese steelmakers have agreed to a provisional 40 percent increase in contract iron-ore prices, said UC361.com analyst Hu Kai, citing the mills. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azfDpvivLDfU&pos=6

Taken from Kraft website: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=129070&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1383587 Delisting and re-registration As Kraft Foods is in receipt of valid acceptances in respect of at least 75 per cent. of the existing issued share capital of Cadbury, Cadbury confirms that the 20 Business Days' notice period for the cancellation of the listing of Cadbury Shares on the Official List and the trading on the London Stock Exchange for listed securities has commenced. It is anticipated that cancellation of listing and trading will take effect no earlier than 8.00 a.m. (London time) on 8 March 2010. Cadbury intends to apply for the delisting of Cadbury ADSs from the NYSE, in so far as practicable effective on the same date as the cancellation of delisting and trading of the Cadbury Shares. As promptly as practicable, Cadbury intends to terminate its ADS program and the Deposit Agreement. Delisting is likely to reduce significantly the liquidity and marketability of any Cadbury Shares (including those represented by Cadbury ADSs) in respect of which the Offer has not been accepted. It is also proposed that, after Cadbury Shares are delisted, Cadbury will be re-registered as a private company.

You are correct with your dates, with the Record date being 19/02 after which you would not be entitled to the div. The div on 26/3 will be 21p, which at todays sp of 1161p = 1.8%. The final div in sept should be around 49p which = 4.2%, giving 6% for the year at todays sp. The total div for the year is usually split 1/3 Interim and 2/3 Final.

Depends where the market is when I receive my cash. If I had it now I would buy LLOY - looks set for a rise - or BP as IMHO yesterdays sell off was overdone. Both are solid blue chip and BP pays a good div. Best of luck with your choice.

I had not yet accepted as I was waiting for the offer to go unconditional. Now it is all over I have been reading the offer prospectus, with particular attention to the Mix-n-Match Facility. This was set at 1/12/09 prices at £15.94 per Kraft share (sp of $26.50 and $/£ exchange of 1.6627). So if you swap £15.94 of your cash consideration for a Kraft share you will now have a share worth £17.88 (current sp of $28.57 and $/£ rate of 1.5981) gaining £1.94 for each Kraft share. In effect you can swop the 500p part of the offer for 0.3137 of a Kraft share and sell it - through the Free Share Dealing facility - for 560.8p, thereby making the offer worth 895.8p. Almost £1 more than asking for cash!!!!!!! Even if the sp drops a little and the exchange rate moves the wrong way it's still a no-brainer. As ever DYOR and please check my figures. Will post on here- if the board still exists - what I actually receive. Would be nice to hear from others who have done things differently, but I shall be asking for all Kraft shares and hoping enough people asked for all cash - but they will only get 799p max!!!

Cadbury have just lost their battle with Kraft, so that makes Thorntons the countries leading independant chocolate maker. Man, I love their Viennese Truffles. Scrummy!!

Guess I will have to develope a liking for Galaxy, Yorkie and Thorntons chocolate just in case they start f3cking around with the formula of CDM.

As previously posted by me Kraft have made it clear that anyone who asks for cash will only get up to 799p, this IMHO is a rip-off and a disgrace. So in an attempt to beat the system I shall be asking for extra Kraft shares in the mix-n-match and then selling these as soon as possible using the free dealing service. As the Kraft price and the $/£ exchange rate have both moved in our favour I believe this to be the best way to maximise the return from this takeover. But, as ever DYOR. Plus we get a 10p div. All of the below documents that I have quoted from can be found on their website: http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/Investor/index.aspx Cadbury Securityholders who have not yet accepted, and wish to accept, the Offer should take action to accept the Offer as soon as possible. Details of the procedure for doing so are set out in the Final Offer Documents (including, in the case of certificated Cadbury Shares and Cadbury ADSs, the Final Acceptance Forms) sent to Cadbury Securityholders on 20 January 2010. The Final Offer Documents are also available on Kraft Foods' website (www.transactioninfo.com/kraftfoods). The reference share price and exchange rate of the Mix and Match Facility were set on 1 December 2009, the last practicable date prior to the publication of Kraft's Original Offer Document. For certain legal and technical reasons it was not possible to update this when the Final Offer was announced. On 1 December 2009, the Kraft share price was $26.50 and the USD/GBP exchange rate was $1.6627 per GBP 1.00. Cadbury Securityholders who elect for additional cash under the Mix and Match Facility (providing that there are sufficient off-setting elections for shares) would receive 799 pence per Cadbury Share in cash and 3,195 pence per Cadbury ADS in cash (excluding in each case the Special Dividend of 10 pence per Cadbury Share). By contrast, the Final Offer's current value is 827 pence per Cadbury Share and 3,308 pence per Cadbury ADS (excluding in each case the Special Dividend of 10 pence per Cadbury Share)(1). The Final Offer's value will change as the Kraft Foods share price and the USD/GBP exchange rate change. Therefore, Cadbury Securityholders should note that the Final Offer's value is presently higher than the value they may receive by electing for additional cash under the Mix and Match Facility.

Offer by Kraft Foods Inc. for Cadbury Plc - Offer Update - Offer Wholly Unconditional NORTHFIELD, Ill., Feb 02, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Kraft Foods announces that all of the Conditions to its recommended Final Offer have been satisfied or waived and, accordingly, the Offer is wholly unconditional. As at 1.00 p.m. (London time) on 2 February 2010, Kraft Foods had received valid acceptances of the Offer in respect of a total of 987,684,041 Cadbury Shares (including those represented by Cadbury ADSs), representing approximately 71.73 per cent. of the existing issued share capital of Cadbury. As at 1.00 p.m. (London time) on 2 February 2010, Kraft Foods had received valid acceptances of the Offer in respect of a total of 987,684,041 Cadbury Shares (including those represented by Cadbury ADSs), representing approximately 71.73 per cent. of the existing issued share capital of Cadbury. Following receipt of sufficient acceptances (i.e. 75 per cent.), Kraft Foods intends to procure that Cadbury will apply for the cancellation of the listing of Cadbury Shares on the Official List and the trading on the London Stock Exchange for listed securities. Kraft Foods also intends to procure that, as soon as practicable, Cadbury will apply for the delisting of Cadbury ADSs from the NYSE and that Cadbury terminates its ADS program and the Deposit Agreement.

Does my 'c' not work?? It should be SCREAMING!!!

Or even 'sreaming' AARRGGHH Wish I could spell!!!

While I would normally be sreaming at you to clear your mortgage first, with rates currently so low it makes sense to try and get a better return on your money elsewhere. Lloy really is one for the long term. It may not move for a while, maybe not until after the election, and it won't start paying divs again until a lot of the Government debt is repaid. But once that is out of the way it should really take off, re-invest the divs back into the shares and you could have a nice little nest egg. In years to come your 53p will look like a bargain. The rise here with NEX has been halted due to the retrace with the FTSE, so nice to see it holding its own. Let's hope for a good set of results.

Rise in price due to a report that Northumbrian Water could receive a £1.7bn takeover from a Canadian Pension fund http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8490794.stm

Did you keep your spreadbet open? FTSE has fallen off a cliff but this has held up quite nicely. Could be a further rise if the FTSE recovers.

Personally I don't like penny shares. They can do well if you pick a good one, or you can lose the lot. At the end of the day a 20% overall rise is the same whether you have 10 x £10 shares or 10,000 x 1p shares, you still make £20. As for DEB you may be right, but maybe there is a reason why it hasn't been able to get back to previous highs. Have a look at the 5 yr chart, it's only been heading one way. Are you looking for short term growth, or are you prepared to put money away for 5/10/20 years to build up a nice little nest egg? Most of my shares were bought 10-25 years ago, with the poor ones weeded out over time. So now I have a nice retirement fund and a steady stream of dividends providing some income. Approx half of my shares are at or near their all time highs, the rest are at about 75% with a good yield. Do you have the time and the desire to monotor your shares on a daily/hourly basis. If so then by all means look at penny shares. But you will need to very disciplined. See how often the price rises and falls, and buy and sell accordingly. You will need a lot of skill and luck. If you want something to tuck away and look at every month then I would suggest going for someting safer. Choose a share that shows steady growth and pays a good dividend. As I've said before I am not into giving recommendations as I don't want the abuse if someone disagrees with me. I like a broad spread of mainstream shares and view things long term. If you had to twist my arm for one share that may do well in the med term I would have to plump for Lloyds. Read the posts over there and pay particular attention to posters like GTBB/TIE/1WJM/SD1/SHD and if you can understand what he can do with charts LBH. These people know more than most and all seem to be of the opinion that Lloyds has pretty much hit the bottom. It currently doesn't pay divs but should do in a couple of years. The maket is down over 400 points in the last three weeks so now may be a good time to buy.

All shares are disappointing at the moment with the FTSE down over 400 points in three weeks, especially Lloyds - thanks for reminding me!!! We may be out of recession but only just, who knows what is around the corner. We are still way above March '09 levels so can't grumble. What are you thinking of buying??