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“ The JSE ex-div date is 15 August and the payment date is 26 September“
There’s a slip there. Declaration of dividend is 15 August, ex-div date is 22 September, dividend payment date is 10 October 2022.
@pop31 I’m grateful for the two links. I actually wondered if your first one (yesterday’s) was by someone else and not Boatman Capital as it was such a U-turn.
Re your second link, opening paragraph: “When Anglo American spun off its coal arm to form Thungela Resources last June, no one could have predicted that the taboo energy source would make a comeback”. A number of people on here would disagree! It’s funny seeing them trying to justify their U-turn.
Boatman Capital is the one that said, in June 2021, that TGA shares were worthless! They were £1.50 then.
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/amp/news/951530
https://theboatmancapital.com/2021/06/02/thungela-resources-ltd-drowning-in-liabilities/
Continued...
Zahawi said: “I think it’s important we all get round the table, I will continue to do the work I need to do as chancellor, but I also want to challenge them, to say are you making the investment? How can you help your customers? What more can we do together? That’s the reason for the meeting.”
Continued...
Brown said the four could suspend and “fundamentally reform” the price cap, agree to more financial support in October, identify more supplies abroad and more storage in the UK, and agree on voluntary energy reductions.
But he also suggested that the government could bring into public ownership “as a last resort” companies who do not provide social tariffs dictated by “what people can afford”.
Brown suggested his proposals could be paid for “with a watertight windfall tax on energy companies and a tax of the high levels of City bonus payments”.
The government introduced a windfall tax in May, which is expected to raise around £5 billion.
But extending that was not expected to be on the table in discussions with Zahawi and Kwarteng today, with both ministers being instinctively against the measure.
However, it could still be an option if company chiefs do not make investment progress.
Mark Spencer, the Commons leader who is backing Sunak, told Times Radio he would not rule it out.
He said: “I’m certainly not a huge fan of big taxes, but at the same time, we’ve got to try and help people through this through this crisis. So it’s not something I would rule out at this moment in time.”
Spencer said: “I think we need everyone to be putting their shoulder to the wheel, including those energy producers and energy companies to try and assist with this global challenge we face.”
He said the companies were in a “hugely privileged position of controlling and having huge influence over a marketplace”.
He added: “And we need to work with them, alongside them to make sure that they’ve got the cash to invest in the future so that we can see energy prices come down in the long and medium term, but at the same time, you know, not to exploit hard-working people around the country.”
Truss backers have previously said she does not support a further windfall tax.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who is backing the foreign secretary, said it would not be appropriate for her to be part of discussions with Johnson and Sunak, or with energy companies.
“She’s in a campaign and it would be quite wrong for her to try and adjust things in accordance to what would suit her,” he told Times Radio.
“But what obviously we want from the government is that the government gets the idea of what the problem is, to what degree, how much therefore — if there is requirement — how much would be required? How much of that would be offset as a result of the tax reduction policy that Liz has? And finally, that key point, who will need the money most?”
There has been widespread anger at Shell, BP and British Gas owner Centrica announcing bumper financial results while households struggle with soaring bills.
During the meeting in Downing Street today, bosses will be asked to submit a breakdown of expected profits and payouts, as well as investment plans for the next three years.
(Nearly there...)
Energy bills could soar even higher than expected to more than £5,000 next year, experts have warned, as industry bosses will be told to explain their profits and payouts to ministers.
Ofgem could be forced to raise the price cap to £5,038 in April — more than £200 above previous estimates — according to the energy consultancy Auxilione, with bills hitting £4,467 in January.
Because their prediction was based on wholesale market figures, Auxilione said there was little energy companies could do to try to bring prices down and said there was “little appreciation [of] just how impossible that task is”.
However, Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, are set to meet energy bosses today and will tell them the government expects them to invest record profits in green energy and gas production to help deliver lower bills.
Before the meeting, Zahawi said: “They haven’t changed anything they’re doing, they haven’t had any increase in their input costs at all, but they’re getting a much higher return because of the unusually high gas price because of Putin.”
But Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has urged ministers and leadership candidates to go further and temporarily re-nationalise firms which do not work to lower bills.
Writing in The Guardian, Brown warned: “Time and tide wait for no one. Neither do crises. They don’t take holidays, and don’t politely hang fire — certainly not to suit the convenience of a departing PM and the whims of two potential successors.”
And he said Boris Johnson, Zahawi, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak should hold an “urgent” summit, a move ruled out by Truss.
(Continued due to character limit...)
Headline: Energy bills could top £5,000 by April as ministers hold crisis talks with energy bosses.
Text to follow.
Does this mean you can tell the police that they’re asterisking asterisks?
Asking for a criminal.
LOL. I typed the second name in full, without asterisks, and the software inserted the asterisks.
You’re kidding me - you can’t mention ****stan?
That explains why nobody talks about S****horpe.
“...If the trend continues this week, Thungela may even close above its previous all-time highest close of 1369. May not hit its all time high price of 1407 yet but small steps, I guess...”
Neither you nor I expected it to hit a high of 1423 today, or to close at an all-time high of 1408.
The previous all-time high was before the large dividend was paid so you can add the (significant) dividend to today’s share price when comparing the highs.
Continued...
“Europe is clearly preparing for the occasion they would be fully cut off from Russian gas,” Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist at Rabobank, said.
Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at Icis, the price reporting agency, said that if Nord Stream 1 supplies were constrained at present levels for a protracted period, it would “likely limit Europe’s ability to inject adequate volumes of gas into storage, which could have consequences on winter supply”.
Analysts at Redburn said Russia was “now firmly putting the squeeze on European energy supply. Alarmingly, it looks like further pretexts to cut supply are potentially already being developed. This is arguably now blatant politicisation of gas flows. Gas prices, and exposed equities, have benefited accordingly as the market worries about winter and the reliability of Russian supply.”
Karolina Siemieniuk, at Rystad Energy, said: “Even though Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that a complete halt of gas supply to Europe is not planned, the statement is not overly reassuring and right now the situation appears a never-ending game with Russia calling the shots.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-sends-uk-gas-prices-soaring-again-fxw5dcnp3
Here we go again:
Headline: Russia sends UK gas prices soaring again.
Sub-heading: Putin curtails pipeline supplies to Europe:
Gas prices in Britain surged yesterday to highs not seen since March after Russia further curtailed supplies to Europe, just as European Union leaders agreed a weakened emergency plan to curb demand.
UK wholesale gas prices for the month ahead rose by 17 per cent to more than 375p a therm — four times higher than they were a year ago — while European benchmark prices rose by a fifth.
The increase in wholesale gas prices is more bad news for consumers, with energy bills already expected to surge to more than £3,200 a year from October and to rise again in January if wholesale prices stay high.
Gazprom said on Monday that it would further limit gas volumes through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany from today, supplying only a fifth of normal capacity.
The Kremlin-backed gas company has blamed maintenance involving a turbine that is stuck in Germany amid sanctions. However, the move has been widely seen as Moscow “weaponising” gas and deliberately squeezing European supplies in retaliation to western sanctions.
EU leaders reached agreement yesterday on a plan for member states to voluntarily cut gas usage by 15 per cent from August to March. The cuts could be made binding in the event of a supply emergency, though the deal included numerous carve-outs to reduce the impact of any such binding reduction for some countries.
Continued...
(Posted over two comments due to the character limit)
Continued:
Yesterday it emerged that Gazprom, the Russian energy group, had declared “force majeure” in relation to the reduction in supplies over the past month, saying it could not fulfil its supply obligations owing to “extraordinary” circumstances outside its control.
Gas prices have soared in part because of restricted supplies from Russia. There are fears that Moscow could cut off the gas altogether this winter in response to western sanctions, leading to rationing and even more extreme prices.
The IEA, founded in 1974 as a forum for energy co-operation, said that the European Union was on “red alert” and that “co-ordinated actions across Europe were essential to prevent a gas crunch”. Birol wrote: “We can’t rule out a complete cut-off.”
He said Europe had not done enough to cut gas demand since Moscow began its war in Ukraine, leaving it in “an incredibly precarious situation”. Leaders must “do all they can right now to prepare for a long, hard winter” or else “leave the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people and European economies at the mercy of the weather or give unnecessary extra leverage to President Putin”.
Birol said that if Putin were to cut off gas from the start of October, “the EU would need to have filled its gas storage facilities to above 90 per cent of their capacity to get through winter”. Storage sites are 60 per cent full, according to Icis, the price reporting agency.
This is the article:
Europe should burn more coal and oil for power generation now so that it can conserve gas in case Russia cuts off supplies this winter, the International Energy Agency has said.
Immediate action is needed to cut gas demand so that storage facilities can be filled to reduce the risk of rationing over winter months, Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, warned.
“It is categorically not enough to rely on gas from non-Russian sources. These supplies are not available in the volumes required to substitute for missing deliveries from Russia,” Birol said.
The IEA urged European leaders to minimise gas usage in electricity generation by “temporarily increasing coal and oil-fired generation while accelerating deployment of low-carbon sources, including nuclear power”.
Households should be encouraged to use less electricity for air conditioning in the summer. “Government and public buildings should take the lead on this to set an example, while campaigns should encourage behavioural changes among consumers,” it said. “If these types of measures are not implemented now, Europe will be in an extremely vulnerable position and could well face much more drastic cuts and curtailments later on.”
Europe has relied on Russia for as much as 40 per cent of its gas and the invasion of Ukraine has left it trying to secure alternative supplies. Moscow has reduced supplies through the Nordstream 1 pipeline to Germany, citing technical issues, and has taken it offline for maintenance. It is due to resume operating on Thursday, but the IEA said it was unclear if it would do so, and if so at what level.
Continued due to character limit...
‘Burn coal now to ensure sufficient winter gas supply’ 19/7/22 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/758baaf6-06cc-11ed-a986-fc91b4ad48f0?shareToken=e6f3514a32123fd44264a2e39acabdbb
Continued...
Gas prices have soared across Europe amid fears over Russian supplies. UK energy bills are forecast to jump by 65 per cent to more than £3,200 a year in October, with gas prices responsible for the vast majority of the increase.
Moody’s on Wednesday warned that Germany and Italy would be forced into gas rationing if flows do not restart through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline when maintenance is scheduled to end later this month.
The Times revealed earlier this year that British government officials believed a reasonable worst case scenario could also result in electricity being rationed in Britain.
In an interview broadcast at the same event in Oxford, Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, acknowledged this winter would be “challenging” and warned that he believed gas prices would stay high in the medium-term. “Structurally there are a lot of arguments to suggest that gas isn’t going to come down any time soon,” he said. As a result the UK wholesale electricity market needed to be reformed so that expensive gas-fired power prices didn’t get the price for renewables with cheap running costs, he said.
Several other European leaders have urged consumers to cut back on their consumption to help preserve scarce supplies. However the UK government has so far stopped short of such a recommendation; Kwarteng said that “everyone needs to have common sense”.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/892b6b92-0388-11ed-aa15-45d37b45dc0d?shareToken=449b05669c3692e1aeb12ff36193bfa4
Headline: “Rationing looms as gas prices soar. Energy bosses warn of serious Russian threat”.
Europe may have to ration energy this winter if Russia cuts off the gas while Britain will also face “really, really high prices”, senior energy leaders have warned.
The bosses of Shell and National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) both issued stark warnings about the bleak winter ahead, after President Putin threatened that sanctions could result in catastrophic consequences for energy markets.
Ben van Beurden, Shell chief executive, said President Putin had shown that “he better be taken seriously when he makes threats” and called on European leaders to put “very significant contingency plans” in place.
“I think we will be facing a really tough winter in Europe. Some countries will fare better than others but I think we will all be facing very significantly escalating pricing,” he told the Aurora Spring Forum, an energy conference in Oxford. “In a worst case, we will be in a situation where we have to ration.”
Fintan Slye, director of National Grid ESO, the division responsible for keeping the lights on, said that while the UK was less dependent on flows of Russian gas than its continental European neighbours, “you can’t get past the fact that if there is a shut-off of Russian gas into Europe, then the implications of that will still ripple through into the UK”. That would mean “really, really high prices”, he warned.
National Grid ESO is due to publish its initial outlook for winter energy security later this month. Slye said Britain should have sufficient power plants available, with forecast margins comparable to last winter. “The bigger risk that we do need to be conscious of is the risk to European energy security of supply that’s being caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Undoubtedly that presents challenges this winter and will make security of supply across Europe potentially quite difficult,” he said.
National Grid has been putting preparations in place such as contracts to keep coal-fired power plants open as a “very sensible insurance policy” for the winter.
Van Beurden of Shell said it had long been assumed that it was not in Russia’s interest to curtail European supplies because it would make European markets “forever distrustful” of Russian supplies. Van Beurden had in the past made the case that Europe needed Russian gas, and Shell has a stake in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany that has been built but is now never expected to start operating. Van Beurden admitted that President Putin had “surprised quite a few of us” with his willingness to weaponise energy and said it would now be “unwise” to dismiss the risk of gas supplies being curtailed.
(Spread over two comments due to the character limit...)
@Zizou5 “This goes vertical Tuesday“.
You were right - just the wrong way!
The good news, so to speak, is that the sell off was across the board -it was a sea of red yesterday.
The fall yesterday was so sharp that I assumed the news was bad. Fortunately, it isn’t. I expect that it will recover and go higher, soon.
Continued:
A spokeswoman for the government said: “In light of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, it is right that we explore a wide range of options to further bolster our energy security and domestic supply.”
She said the government remained committed to ending the use of coal power by October 2024.