Member Info for fleccy

Robert Grindle and Polo Tang both hunting for Bear food, fortunately there wasn't any Bear food on the menu.

Anyone else noticed a few analysts asking about the impact of an Openreach divestment? If I was a suspicious man I might think the market vultures are vying for a complete or partial sell off of Openreach. Various interests have had a beady eye on Openreach for a long time.

The BTPS trustees need to up their game when it comes to their investments. It's hard to say if this will impact the assets, as I can't find anything breaking down individual percentages of BTPS Equity investments. No doubt we'll find out the full exposure soon.

"BT Pension Scheme sells remaining stake in fund manager Hermes"

https://www.ipe.com/news/bt-pension-scheme-sells-remaining-stake-in-fund-manager-hermes/10054557.article

Clearly Mandy you chat 5hit most of the time and clearly have no idea how to back up the diarrhea that comes out of your mouth. To answer the question, evidence suggests the BT Board don't want a takeover:

“Relevant Potential Change of Control Announcement” means any public announcement or statement by or on behalf of the Issuer, any actual or potential bidder or any adviser acting on behalf of any actual or potential bidder relating to any potential Change of Control where within 180 days following the date of such announcement or statement, a Change of Control occurs;

Each of the following is a “Compulsory Payment Event”

https://www.bt.com/bt-plc/assets/documents/investors/financial-reporting-and-news/debt-investors/hybrid-bond-nc5-25-trust-deed.pdf

You still haven't clarified your earlier statement Mandy, was you saying BT management want a takeover deal agreed?

"Emma Bunion"

LMFAO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunion

"Honestly pushing yourself forward as an expert in these matters is laughable,"

What's laughable is you implying you know what you're talking about Aus; I was just explaining why I know more about Telecoms than you, since I worked in civilian Telecoms for over 30 years, and before that I served in the Royal Signals, so I've got a lot of experience in the subject, how much experience have you got Aus?

"That's why management are keeping quiet. They want any deal agreed at the top level (i.e. with government and gophers Ofcom) before any announcement is made. I feel it in my water."

Can you clarify that statement Mandy, are you saying BT management want a takeover deal agreed?

Jambone have you banged your head, look it up it isn't Rocket Science.

"Fleccy - you’re stating the obvious again."

It isn't obvious at all, I worked for over 20 years in Network transmission and 10 years in Submarine Cable Operations, so I have a much better idea of what's possible and what isn't than you. As far as what Data is and isn't desirable to a foreign power, it's a lot wider than highly secure ringfenced military and Government communications. The more the network moves to IP and Cloud the easier it is to access data, so the Government wouldn't let a foreign entity manage the network of the UK's major communications provider, its just common sense.

"I don’t know, but I doubt BT handle much sensitive stuff, they might own or provide infrastructure to move data around, but do they get to see its contents?"

It's about who controls the network, with IP/cloud you can sniff off data within routers and switches. You can sniff off data from fibre connections using splitters, within data center's and Network sites, and if you control the network you can send that data to anywhere you wish, so the Government do care who has access to the countries Telecom infrastructure.

Shut up Mandy you add nothing of substance, you just criticise other peoples posts. You add nothing substantive to the conversations.

"Things will never improve, no matter who is in Government, because the UK is just firefighting on every level"

My personal view is that we have limited natural resources and rely too heavily on other States, so are easily blackmailed by the likes of the EU and US. I can't understand why UK Government's haven't historically had long term policies for generating excess power, since cheap electricity reduces costs across industry and society in general, it seems a no brainer to me. As far as I know we have limited access to rare Earth elements, so maybe we could use excess electricity to produce hydrogen and develop industries around something we could produce in perpetuity. The Government seem to blame the BOE for the current inflationary environment, personally I blame long term Government policies; If we hard dirt cheap electricity, everything else would be economically achievable at much lower cost, I'm talking things like heavy industry, vertical farming and many others.

The spread is 1.55 to 1.6, a trade going through at 1.57 is a sell. If they'd gone through closer to the Ask price then they might have been buys.

The market's dysfunctional, it isn't currently pricing stocks based on fundamentals and I have no interest in being mugged by the market, so I'm playing their game and reinvesting dividends where I see value. It's up to everyone else what they do, but in my opinion BT is massively undervalued and has the right strategy to do well over the coming years. I don't see the debt as an issue, as nearly a third is lease liabilities which is an operational cost; I also believe that BT could easily take more debt onto its books, if required, irrespective of the UBS opinion. I'm only saying what I'm doing, people should do their own research and make their own decisions.

Realistically, in my opinion, the chance of a takeover is remote to none.

"However Blackrock, invesco, fidelity etc others are not affected as they are not banks.

Also this regulation if approved doesn't affect exchanges just banks."

I'd suggest that Blackrock, invesco, fidelity are covered by the term "traditional financial institutions" and if Exchanges store client Bitcoin then they'll have to comply with the legislation, so I haven't mislead over anything I've just read what it says in the article. I haven't read the raw text of the legislation, but if you want to dig through it and show me if the article is misleading, then I'll agree with you.

"I think this share is screaming “takeover” my view is there will be a bid in September (easy Fleccy!)"

I'd agree with you if it wasn't for the fact that I don't see any company that'd be allowed to takeover BT. You can write off most foreign based companies and entities, on the basis of national security, and a takeover by a US company would result in any Government receiving a media flogging, stoning, followed by a crucifixion; Imagine the headlines if one of the last remaining truly British Blue chip companies becomes the latest victim of the US takeover of UK PLC.

Larry, if you can advise me of any UK based company who'd be able to takeover BT, then I'll agree with you. BT and Vodafone are the last large remaining UK based telecom entities, now Cable & Wireless no longer exists, with BT arguably the most important as far as the UK psyche's concerned; VMO2 is owned by Telefonica and Liberty Global, Spanish and US companies and I cant see companies like BP being interested in Telecoms. Drahi or Deutsche Telekom wont be able to takeover BT, since they wont be allowed to.

Miker did you read the main points made in the article?

"European Union (EU) representatives have approved new legislation to safeguard the financial system by preventing unbacked digital assets from gaining unfettered access to traditional banking."

Bitcoin is an unbacked digital asset.

"This would require banking and traditional financial institutions to issue a Euro of capital for every Euro invested in Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH), potentially discouraging extensive trading in the emerging financial market."

"On the offset, traditional virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum could enjoy limited widespread adoption.

However, the new EU legal framework is much kinder to collateralized fiat digital assets, popularly known as stablecoins."

The legislation will mean Banks, Exchanges, etc holding/trading unbacked digital assets, like Bitcoin, will have to have to hold the equivalent capital in Euros, so nearly €28,000 per Bitcoin at the current valuation. I don't view this as good news for unbacked Crypto, it'll make life difficult for institutions to hold and trade such tokens; Easier to just focus on Fiat backed stablecoins.

"They committed on multiple occasions to progressive dividend policy"

Considering they froze the dividend this time around, I don't think anyone would be surprised to see it frozen again. BT's exact words are, "We reconfirm our progressive dividend policy which is to maintain or grow the dividend each year", so they'll at least maintain the dividend going forward. Even if UBS are correct with their figures, which I doubt, BT could just reduce capex to around £4.1 Billion a year and take a bit longer rolling out FTTP. Like I said, the report is likely fearmongering aimed at nervous retail.