Member Info for courtier

The sudden rise triggered a small creaming off sale in my ISA holding. The interesting thing was that the price never actually reached my trigger value. Someone must have wanted a small number of BNC shares to finish a deal and was prepared to go very slightly over the market price. Unusual? I know that when investors describe a move as brave they often really mean foolish. However I have such faith in the Santander management that I feel sure they have definite plans for Banco Popular. They do seem to be good at turning around problems, so I will continue to call it brave. Perhaps I am too trusting...

FINAL RESULTS WORKSPACE GROUP PLC 40% INCREASE IN DIVIDEND Workspace Group PLC ("Workspace") publishes its Full Year Results for the year ended 31 March 2017 on 7 June 2017. The comments in this announcement refer to the period from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 ("the period") unless otherwise stated. The Workspace Advantage, which offers highly designed and super connected space to businesses on flexible terms, has delivered: · Strong growth in net rental income up 6.9% to £79.2m, resulting in a 15.5% growth in adjusted trading profit after interest to £50.7m · Profit before tax of £88.8m, lower than 2016 due to a smaller uplift in the property valuation · EPRA net asset value per share of £9.53, up 3.3% · An increase in total rent roll of 14.5% to £89.5m from rental growth at like-for-like properties and a strong letting performance at recently completed projects · A 13.7% increase in like-for-like rent roll to £59.6m and a 12.9% increase in like-for-like rent per sq. ft. to £28.17 as core assets continue to perform strongly · An underlying increase of 2.1% in the property portfolio to £1,844m · A 40% increase in the total dividend to 21.07p reflecting strong financial results and confidence in the outlook for the business · Loan to value at 13% with undrawn facilities (including cash) of £123m Strategic progress and business update · Conclusion of the successful BlackRock Workspace Property Trust ("BWPT") in June 2016 · Planning consents achieved for one mixed-use redevelopment and four refurbishments, including one post the period end · Three residential redevelopments contracted for sale in October 2016 · 13-17 Fitzroy Street, Fitzrovia acquired in April 2017 for £98.5m · The Record Hall, a new flagship business centre in Holborn, opened in May 2017 · Uplands industrial estate sold for £50m in May 2017

Details of this bold acquisition are here: https://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/3798H_-2017-6-7.pdf

Inmarsat Lands Qatar Airlines Deal: Sataellite firm Inmarset has struck a deal with Qatar Airways to supply in flight broadband to the Middle East airline. Passengers will be able to use the internet during flights in 130 aircraft including the Airbus A350 and Boeing 777. Qatar is the first MIddle East airline to use Inmarset's broadband system.

Unite Students, the UK's leading manager and developer of student accommodation, announces that USAF has exchanged contracts for the acquisition of two assets: a 222-bed development in Durham and a 418-bed scheme in Selly Oak, Birmingham. The combined cost of the developments is £56 million (Unite share £12.9 million). The acquisitions are expected to generate a yield on cost of 6.3% in their first full year of operation. hard Simpson, Group Property Director, said: "These transactions demonstrate our strategy of investing in new, larger and more efficient properties with cluster flat accommodation, available at a lower price point for students. We will continue to deploy funds from the disposals made at the start of the year to further improve the quality of the portfolio and to extend our highly accretive development programme in strong regional locations with top-ranked universities like Durham or Birmingham, where we see the most sustainable growth."

"My" company does that! Wow

All is back to normal and no company was de-listed or suspended.

Sunday morming and on this site London South-east tell me that BNC are de-listed or suspended. Anyone know why, especially on a Sunday morning, this is?

For those asking for more information: http://www.unite-group.co.uk/sites/default/files/2017-03/annual-report-2016.pd

Just received the latest dividends (includes an unexpected extra), which is 10p per share in total or about 1.5%. Probably why the price dropped. I've never quite got my head round why shareholders sell after an extra dividend, but they do. Obviously it is to do with unsatisfied greed...

WORKSPACE ANNOUNCES DISPOSAL OF UPLANDS BUSINESS PARK Workspace Group PLC (Workspace) is pleased to announce the simultaneous exchange and completion of contracts for the disposal of Uplands Business Park in Walthamstow, E17, for £50.0m. This 11 acre industrial estate totals 290,000 sq. ft. of net lettable space with an average rent per sq. ft. of £5.70. The property was sold at a premium of 75% (£21.5m) to the September 2016 valuation at a net initial yield of 3.1%. Jamie Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer of Workspace, commented, "The Uplands industrial estate is one of the last two remaining industrial properties in our like-for-like portfolio which had been earmarked for disposal or redevelopment. We have picked our time in the market and this sale, completed at a considerable premium, is a clear demonstration of our ability to drive value from our assets. The proceeds from the sale of Uplands will be reinvested into our active refurbishment pipeline or into acquisition opportunities to deliver superior returns for shareholders."

We have maintained our trend of increasing levels of new business during the quarter, with the Far East and Latin America now following the success achieved in the Middle East and Rest of World regions; New business for Hansard International Limited ("Hansard International") for Q3 2017 was £38.9m in PVNBP ("Present Value of New Business Premiums") terms, approximately 28% higher than Q3 2016; As previously announced, our strategic alliance with Union Insurance Company PSC in the UAE was launched during Q3 2017; Assets under administration have increased since the last quarter by £41m or 4% to £1.04 billion; The Group traded profitably during the period and remains strongly capitalised. Gordon Marr, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: "It is pleasing to see such strong rates of new business growth and for it to extend across all the regions in which we operate. We are delighted with the positive reception from our distribution partners in the UAE around our alliance with Union Insurance and look forward to achieving growth in that area in the coming year."

A special report on international banking only mentioned Santander once. "Santander played its hand far better. It emerged from the crisis without a single quarter of losses, and remains the euro zone's most valuable bank."

Thank you Wexboy. I would like to say that I now understand what Record actually does. I get as far as the pairing of currencies, and deciding the various probability weightings, and give up. On the whole I think I will continue with my steady investment in the company because of the consistent results, and because Neil seems to know what he is doing. It just goes a bit against the grain to not really understand what one of my investments does!

Business continued to perform in line with management expectations, the FTSE 250 group confirmed, enabling it to meet all of its medium-term financial targets of volume growth, return on sale, return on cash employed, cash conversion and leverage. Performance of recently acquired businesses -- including Creo in the UK, Deku-Pack in Denmark, Portugal's P&I Display and Gopaca, and Parish Manufacturing in the US -- was said to be "progressing well". Chief executive Miles Roberts said: "We are pleased with the performance in the year, despite challenging economic conditions and have seen DS Smith grow again, both organically and through acquisitions."

Banco Santander Group Executive Chairman, Ana Botín, said: “It’s been a strong start to the year with positive momentum across all markets and particularly good growth in Latin America, Spain and our consumer finance business. We are earning the loyalty of more customers, delivering ahead of our targets, and maintaining our position as one of the most efficient, profitable, and predictable banks in the world. While the environment continues to be challenging for the banking sector, the outlook for Santander is positive. The economies of all our core markets are expected to grow this year and we are confident that our business model, combined with the consistent execution of our strategy, position us well to continue delivering for our customers and teams while growing profitably in the years ahead.”

Madrid, 26 April 2017 - PRESS RELEASE The Group has earned the loyalty of a further 1.5 million customers since Q1’16, with lending and customer funds increasing by 2% and 7% respectively. The Group continues to be well diversified with Europe contributing 52% of profit and the Americas 48% (Brazil 26%). Attributable profit increased in nine of the Group’s ten core markets, excluding currency movements. During the first quarter of 2017 the Group’s common equity tier 1 capital ratio increased by 11 basis points to 10.66%, while cost/income ratio improved to 46.1% from 48.1%. Since Q1 2016, return on tangible equity, a key measure of profitability, has increased by 100 basis points to 12.1%, among the best of our peers. Tangible net asset value per share increased by 5% to €4.26, and earnings per share increased by 14% to €0.122.

At last some action on the share price front. I still expect Equiniti to reach 250p but I really find the company and what it does very hard to understand, so I am merely looking at history really.

Remember that Santander remain very much a family run business, one of my reasons for holding the shares long term. I think that the Botin family are more likely to maintain a true interest than a less concerned board, although there are many people have expressed displeasure at possible patronage. I very much doubt that the family would need or want to sell out. However anything is possible... My strong buy recommendation is for long term investors.

Assets under management equivalents - AUME totalled GBP46.6 billion, up 1.7% from GBP45.8 billion since March. Record said it had 59 clients as at the end of March, down from 64 at the end of December. It said that,for US Dynamic Hedging clients, hedging returns were negative as the US dollar weakened against the weighted basked of hedging currencies. Losses primarily came from hedging the Japanese yen and the euro. For UK based Dynamic Hedging clients, hedging returns were also negative, as whilst sterling strengthened overall against a basket of hedged currencies, it "followed a volatile path in doing so, which led to elevated costs associated with varying the hedge ratios". I do not know how good or bad this information is for Record.