Member Info for courtier

Tuesday to Tuesday 305p to 324p 6.2% up Over the month 298p to 324p 8.7% up Over the year 205p to 324p 58% up And I was seriously considering making them a hold... Of course there have been wobbles and I chose my time well.

Floods and the share price rises?

Share Price has recovered about 10p or just over 11%. But it is only the beginnings of any real recovery to the 126p of three months ago, the 130p of six months ago or the 160p of a year ago. I do agree that the company is in the right markets, was right to cut the dividend, which remains excellent, and has shown positive recent figures. Perhaps there is hope still...

On the whole a good month, though it has been recovery rather than improvement. Lets see what a new year can bring. The dividend policy remains sound and there is some talk of a return of capital to shareholders. I actually doubt this having heard the CEO and finance director talking, but the rumour is included in the statement pointed to in my previous post. There are also a few product developments that might help, especially in the tight American market.

I really agree with the article posted. I think the writer misses the importance of competent active management, but that is just another plus for Essar in my opinion. I worry that Essar managers may have more pies than fingers perhaps... I do understand the market's nervousness. Indian government, a court case, market problems in Europe and America are not easily overlooked. However this is a share I would not want to be missing from my ISA.

Very interesting posts, especially from Questor, which I had not spotted. I still think the experts are too pessimistic about this share. The management seem perfectly capable of managing a fast expansion into Europe. Packaging is always required, and with the rapid growth in Internet Sales should not fall back too suddenly. The company is now big and established enough to take advantage of the constant developments in materials and design in this area. I can't afford any more though...

What an excellent summary L&G, but far from a health warning I think! Thank you. My feeling is that all will go through the regulators. I also held both these and World Wide. When CWW went to Vodafone I used the cash to double up on CWC. It will be interesting to see if the many almost 'invisible' assets here are unlocked by an active management team I am only now beginning to appreciate. I am certainly hoping to increase my holding again before Christmas.

I have posted regularly here as to how comfortable I am with this Standard Life. Growing share price and dividends. What more could a small investor ask? I continue to reinvest the dividends in my ISA and am well in profit, helped by the fact that I initially bought when they demutualised so got a really good price.

I have posted regularly here as to how comfortable I am with this Standard Life. Growing share price and dividends. What more could a small investor ask? I continue to reinvest the dividends in my ISA and am well in profit, helped by the fact that I initially bought when they demutualised so got a really good price.

Thank you all for doing the leg-work on this share. Have just added (in a small way) to my holding. I really rate this company and expect to see growth in share price and dividend. I worry slightly about their specialist approach but perhaps it is better to do one or two things well. Asthma is a really big market all over an increasing area the globe. http://www.ginasthma.org/guidelines-gina-report-global-strategy-for-asthma.html I do wonder if they may be a target for one of the 'BigPharma' groupings. This is purely my own speculation. Thanks again.

You need to read this so I have not tried to shorten... http://staging.hemscottir.com/ir/fweb/irlse.jsp?page=news-item&item=1207201490296889

from the website: e2v technologies plc announces that it has completed the sale of its surplus land at the Grenoble facility of e2v semiconductors sas. Gross proceeds were £5.8m. Cash commitments associated with the sale of about £1.3m are payable over the next two years, along with associated tax of about £1.7m. That looks like cash in the balance of about£2.8m.

Being slightly technophobic I found this interesting, and was also surprised that Costain were developing such things... http://www.costain.com/news/news-releases/2012/11/26/new-technology-for-nuclear-sector.aspx

The report on the website about the sale of the islands division has a rather complicated ending. If I understand it correctly there is a strong possibility of Batelco also buying Monaco Telecom within twelve months given government approvals etc. This would mark a very long step forward in their plans and put more cash towards CWC's development in Central America.

Banco is unusual in the degree of independence given to National subsidiaries, including the UK. This does sometimes mean that quite big news is rather under-reported by our news media. A good example is the Initial Public Offering of $4.1 billion of Banco Santander Mexico shares. They were snapped up being 5.3 times over subscribed and Banco Santander Mexico is now ranked 75th bank in the world in its own right. According to the Santander site 12,575 new shareholders invested. Just rather a long winded way of spotlighting the ability of Santander to ride problems in the Spanish economy, but only one of about four similarly under-reported Santander successes since the Euro hit turbulence.

Santander is the largest bank in Europe and in the World Top Twenty for all financial institutions. It does not hold the bad debts and doubtful assets that our own Lloyds and RBS are saddled with. Their non-performing-loans ratio is lower than 10% I believe. I am even beginning to think that Spain can hold out and not take Europe's 'helping' hand. The longer they continue... The bond market is way beyond my comprehension but hasn't it relaxed the pressure on Spain recently? I am happy to continue holding and if there are euroquakes to come might even invest more if the price drops enough. As for France before Italy I really hope that never happens outside football stadiums. It is good to have someone casting a grown up eye on my third favourite share of the last year though...

Clive Cowdery has put his rapid deal-doing on hold for now, but the costs of integrating the businesses his insurance group, Resolution, has already gobbled up have been more than anyone first thought. Punters don't like being told about extra costs, and with the company revealing around £80m, its shares lost 9.5p to 230p. Apparently the costs have risen due to the "complexity arising from the migration from Axa IT systems", while Resolution's outsourcing deal is also more expensive than planned. But its third-quarter results also contained some better news. The target for the cost reduction has risen to £160m by end-2015. Cowdery set up Resolution in 2008 to buy, merge and sell underperforming life insurers. It has spent £4.7bn buying insurers including Axa's UK life business, but a falling share price ended the deal spree and now it looks like even the mergers that have been completed are pricier than predicted. But analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch reckon Resolution's dividend is the best bit and said: "As we stated in our recent upgrade note, yield is the primary reason to own the shares. Dividend cover will be further enhanced if the international businesses start to increase ongoing dividends back to group." Bank of America's scribes retained their buy recommendation and their 264p share price target.

Christmas 2008: >£10.00 Christmas 2009: >£10.00 Christmas 2010: £6.85 Christmas 2011: £4.92 Christmas 2012: £???? How about £6.00 again?

Santander have gone to some lengths to support their books, see prevous posts about South American sales etc, obviously trying to defend against probable problems in the EU. This encourages me as they are able to do so quite readily and are looking like a sound company preparing for possible problems. Just received yet another good dividend, I like them being paid four times a year, but my internet share host won't let me automatically reinvest.as I could with large UK stocks.

Went up 7.5% last week but still below October's 90p. I would not be surprised to see us knocking £1 quite soon. Not sure I expect Beatthat's prediction of £1.60 anytime before summer 2013 but it is possible. This share will be discovered sooner or later.