Member Info for GingerHippo

Hey guys. I just woke up. Did I miss anything...?

Ah so the trolls have done their job well

This is what I mean. You say it’s unrealistic to raise 50% of the market cap at that coupon rate. But, the market cap is inexplicably low compared to Book value. So what you’re really saying is, investors aren’t coming in here because investors aren’t coming in here.

Poor market sentiment has simultaneously driven down the sp and scared ppl off the new bonds.

Imo the only consideration as to whether to buy the bonds is whether Metro can afford to keep up the interest payments. A strong balance sheet screams that they can. So what on earth is the problem here?!

I’m getting the distinct impression that the ‘troubles’ facing Metro have taken on a life of their own. Metro’s in trouble because they pulled the bond because ppl aren’t subscribing because of Metro’s trouble because they pulled the bond because ppl aren’t subscribing because......

This is a solid business. It’s just market sentiment creating problems out of nothing.

Can't compare Metro to Sirius IMO. Metro has net assets of £1.76B compared to less than £500M market cap, and it is profitable. Sirius has net assets of £1B, with a market cap (before last week's debacle) also of £1B, but they were losing money and needed to fund a massive project that would take years to get anything from. So IMO, Sirius was a gamble, Metro is good business sense.

The question I can't answer is why does Metro have a (relatively) low credit rating? Why do they need to offer 7.5% to sell the bonds? The balance sheet is strong and getting stronger by the day

If you wait for the ride to start, you'll probably miss it imo. At 290 it's already 16% higher than the low point 2 weeks ago.

I so want to agree with you, but I think the 270 comment was made in response to a 315 prediction

Not to mention the fact that even with the dip on Friday, the sp is still higher than it was 2 weeks ago

Imo it went down so much in the last hour as index funds had to sell. That’s all. I believe it will therefore go up first thing Monday as the ftse all share funds have to buy.

Not that I particularly care about the day to day ups and downs. How can the value of a company be £550M at 3:30 and £500M at 4:30? Just shows how ludicrous the sp is and trying to guess which way the wind will blow on Monday is no different from betting on the horses.

Why Thomas Cook and not Sirius? As soon as the government propped up one failing business that have to prop up them all.

“The investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage.” Benjamin Graham

Read “it will not be triggered.” End of sentence

These recent bad news stories are very reminiscent to me of ACA a few months ago.....

Some of the posts today are very sobering. I feel for many here. Reach out to family and friends and talk.

I’ve made big losses in the past and it really stings. I can easily get lost in my own mind thinking I’m so clever but the truth is this could happen to any of my investments at any time. So much is beyond my control.

The main lesson I saw here can be summed up in a post I read from a few months ago. Something like “what can go wrong at this price.” Painful to read.

We’ve known about this fir a long time. More than prices in imo.

Metro is a bank that lends to others. Couldn’t they just hold back some on loan approvals rather than borrowing?

I won't say this there but I can see ppl 'averaging down' and trying to justify their investment by saying it has to go up from here. Well, no, it doesn't. So easy to see this as an outsider looking in but I know I've got caught up in similar thinking in the past.

I'm not saying it won't go back up. I honestly have no idea. But I also don't think it's true that it must go up. Averaging down is risky because more of the portfolio is going into 1 investment. Probably the only thing worse than panic selling is panic buying.

50% in a company that you founded doesn't sound nuts to me....

As rich Dad says "investments are not risky, investors are risky".

Yeesh! 100% in any 1 company is a massive risk to me (unless it's a fund or an investment trust, and even then....)