Member Info for fromage

Aces: You may be waiting another few years for that, and if your patience is that enduring the board may change or indeed there may be another takeover. That was an unfortunate time to buy. Luckily I am almost breakeven (holding longer) but I sold most when the board refused to sell out or streamline. There must be better times coming. But I said that when Boris became PM, so my predictive powers have proved to be wanting.

I would not wait for another offer, but the firm has decent assets that will eventually raise the price I believe. The share has long term value.

I am not convinced by your tea-leaf dregs, or chicken entrails, but I am convinced that the share is going well and prospects look good. I have bought.

I'm thinking that with possible changes coming to pension fund regulations, it would be a good time to invest in a company that would have large scale involvement in this, and of course therefore make money doing it. LGEN came to mind, but the ESG nonsense (and consequent lack of performance) has put me right off. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Not good, agreed, but I did not expect the share price to go this low.

Yes, it is £85K and investments are covered. You are the beneficial owner but not the holder, and if the holder fraudulently sells them and does a runner they are lost to you.

You could split £300K over 4 or 5 platforms, but that is very inconvenient and more expensive. I believe normally platforms use a 3rd party as the ultimate holder, so if you do split you would have to check the ultimate holders because the FSCS limit applies to ALL your assets in that organisation ()eg they may service two or more of your platforms. I am not worried in the slightest.

To compare prices/charges, you need to look at the values in each of the accounts separately, as they are not uniform (eg sipp/deling/isa).

Static : I am with AJBell for all of pension in drawdown, isa, and dealing (ie not pension or isa), and find them very good. Not the cheapest, with £5 to sell or buy, but extremely solid and reliable, and I like the website. They respond well to questions and instructions online - I have never used the telephone service.

I used to have a Hargreaves Lansdown but found them more expensive and was not impressed, so closed all accounts.

You need to check out the annual charges of all contenders for your level of assets in the various accounts. Something else to bear in mind is the reputation and longevity of the company, given that your total holdings will no doubt be in excess of the FSCS limit of £50K.

I am sure the prize is worth having at this price, and indeed price movement so far this morning agrees with you. How long the unlumbering takes is open to question, but it will get there.

Avani and the other creditor I expect. As it will not be listed on AIM beyond 22nd June you may not see the outcome here. You will get 10p dividends (and more) if you buy shares in real companies.

Rather than mothball, they should lay rail track in it, hang fluorescent skeletons and run ghost trains. Just what Redcar tourists need.

Rocket, I disagree. It was a poor offer, both in its manner of execution and its undervaluation. I would have been very disappointed in the board had they accepted. Maybe the fall in Amplats and Kumba that caspinos reports reflects the fact that they are an insignificant part of the true value.

Lucky you, casapinos, I don't have any profits to take, having been in for years with an average price of £28. I guess I am in for the long haul. It is (for me) too much of a risk to trade, selling now, anticipating a fall. Whoever wins, I believe it is worth much more than this long term.

No idea - I am amazed how this keeps going up and down

I have ISA shares in WDS and S32 : both of these are listed in Australia but have secondary listings in London (S32 also in South Africa). TGA has a secondary listing in London. The platinum company is (as far as I can see) listed ONLY in South Africa so maybe excluded from ISA - but if they do split it off for issuing shares to all AAL holders, they may get a secondary listing for that purpose.

The latest offer of 0.886 BHP shares equates to a measly £20.72 for an AAL share worth £26.57 : there is no way I would value SA sell-offs anywhere near £6. I dare say after a hostile takeover BHP could sell those off, but the value of a forced sale will not be current SA prices. If I get a vote it is NO.

They seem to be reported to be that slow, maybe you should be asking "this year's or last"?

Forget copper; this is an aluminium company and is rocketing up without pause. About time too, but still a way to go.

So the "additional value of the offer" is the value you wish to put in dubious spin-offs. The shareholder feedback indicates a preference for a 3rd simpler bid without spin-offs, which will then of course allow a direct comparison. If it is in simple pro-rata the current share prices, it is a no-brainer: I would far rather have my assets under BHP management. We may have to decide how much we think that is worth.

It is interesting to consider the situation from the point of view of the many of those, like myself, who are significant holders (in terms of our own portfolios) of both BHP and AAL. What is best for us?

Assuming an offer of 3/4 of a BHP share for 1 AAL, that's on the face of it giving me £18 for the £27 I have in AAL, which is absurd. IF they asked me I would refuse, but I am obviously not understanding it. Could somebody please explain the logic and arithmetic of how BHP thinks a share offer worth so much?

Fog, buffa - I agree with you. If 20% of the shares were bought back then that money has been lost from the "bank account" so the company is now worth 20% less than it was. Therefore the value of your share has not gone up, and the buy-back has done nothing for you. All it does is alter the metrics by which directors get their pay. You may own a bigger percentage of the company, but the company is a shrinking asset.

Let doubters look at it this way : when you have a 20% dividend you expect the share price to drop 20% on ex-div day. When you have a 20% buyback, does the share price increase 20%?