The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
Two years ago, before the Barc contract problem Puma were on HCP's balance sheet at over £400m. We have been told that Puma have turned the corner and are managing the business quite well. Yet HCP have re-valued their stake in Puma to zero. That is why I continue to hold. That and all those neat buys in 000's along with Shore substantially increasing their stake. Shore and Puma are intertwined. Check out Shore's website. This is a reverse takeover in my view. Hipete69 may have other views but he ain't going to change my mind.
Shore are playing the end game. Dumping a load of shares to unsettle the market and then buying them back. They still need plenty more to get enough to force a takeover. I'm still confident of 8p soon if not tomorrow.
I think that tomorrow is D-Day. PHP results are out on Monday and it would appear that people 'in the know' are filling their boots in anticipation. We are likely to get to know what has been going on behind the scenes.
Hold tight!
Yes. 260k shares in neat thousands added to someone's portfolio today. That's half of one per cent of the shares in circulation but crucially about 10% of those not in corporate hands. I'm gutted that I couldn't add earlier but it is my own fault for selling 30k at profit last month. I have a good feeling about this stock and am looking forward to the next few weeks.
I love seeing all those 000's at the end of the bought share figures. Nice tidy thousands means the corporate investment boys are busy and boy are they busy today. I missed my chance to buy some cheap ones this morning.
VPHA is dead and gone
Good find! That means the corporate guys are in up to their goolies and won't relish having to sell at sixpence a share. I tried to buy some more yesterday but couldn't get anything at all.
I agree about the difficulties that Shore will face getting the necessary number of shares. The corporate guys will be in for between 30p and 60p at least and will not want to sell out at single figures if they can help it. Hence the cat and mouse games with the share price going down in a morning and then up in the afternoon. There is only abpout 15 or 16% of shares not in corporate hands and Shore need half of those unless they can or have done a deal with one or more of the bigger share owners. For those who are not aware Shore / Puma are basically one and the same company but HCP have 50% of Puma's shares. Shore seem to be trying to take back Puma by buying HCP. Also, be aware that in 2010 the value of HCP was 88 pence per share and that was half of the 2007 figure. In 2007 the dividend was 7p per share and yet the company was only turning over a fraction of today's figures. IF and it is a big IF Shore cannot get the necessary 30% this will go up like a bonfire night firework.
You should have kept hold of the ones you sold! LOL
Get in quick before the 4pm buyer starts bidding ;)
What is noticeable is that yesterday all the serial late buys that seem to be a daily occurrence were raggy edged, i.e. not blocks of tidy thousands. Could this be a sign that shares are becoming harder to buy?
I bought into HCP at around 1p last year on the basis that it was a classic sleeping share the SP was nowhere near its true value and that corporate investors were up to their nuts in the company after the sudden collapse caused by contractual difficulties from BARC. After the BOD wrote down the value of PHP on their accounts I topped up believing as I still do that they were deliberately hiding the true value from those who don't dig deep enough. A few months ago there was an immediate and vertical drop in SP that triggered my Stop / Loss order. After consideration I bought back almost all the shares I'd sold at the same price I'd sold them at - 0.6p. Then they stagnated until last week with just Peel selling and re-buying tranches of shares to try and breathe life into the stock. Because of the small free float I don't think that we will see the full £1+ per share true value. My hunch is that unless two investors bid to take over HCP it will take 8p for one investor to get the shares that they need to force the issue. There is no science behind this hunch. It is just that. They will have to buy on the open market as some of the corporate investors will be in for 30p or more and I can't see pension funds and investment trusts willingly selling out their shares for a fraction of their purchase price.
52 week high is 5.88p reached on 16th August. I think we'll break that tomorrow.
Hopefully there will be two bidders vying for control. Then it won't matter what they paid. I believe that the true worth of this share is over £1. But realistically the major shareholders will do back door deals and the price to us little guys will be kept suppressed. I banked on 8p when I bought in and I think that might still be somewhere around the mark. I see you haven't taken a bank holiday break from posting ;) Best of luck for this week. Seems like you are going to be on tenterhooks.
The biggest concern to me is that the company did not inform shareholders of the impending financial situation and that they haven't bothered to update shareholders on the outcome of the 10 day extension. This smacks of arrogance on the part of the BOD. It would be interesting to know who sold those two clocks of shares pre 'surprise'?
I have no idea what is going on. The BOD never intimated there was a cash problem yet the SP had slid without apparent reason indicating someone was in the know. The BOD didn't appear to seek funding before the shares were frozen and went straight for the administration option. At least with CWR they touted for more funding before the shares were frozen. And the other strange thing is that two days on from the deadline we still are no wiser whilst the Vphase website trundles merrily on as though nothing has happened. If it is any consolation I had no idea of the whys and wherefores of CWR yet ended up with a load of shares that cost me nothing and were sold for 10p. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!
Given that VPHA have so many shares owned by corporate investors I would have thought it would be more difficult for the company to cut out the shareholders and sell to a private concern.
I looked on the Vphase website last night and the Tweets were all about new business being generated and nothing bout impending administration.