Member Info for Grayling

I ditched Centrica and was about to do the same with SSE when the Ovo sale news broke. I hung on to SSE and just got rid of CNA and am mightily pleased with the outcome. The retail business was a millstone around SSE's neck and holding the whole enterprise back. Meanwhile over at Centrica they are stuck with price caps and having to compete with more nimble suppliers like Ovo and Octopus. "Hive" has been a nightmare and will never make them any money as there is too much competition in a sector that Centrica just don't have the know-how to stay the course in.

I find it most amusing that once any share price goes below the 1p mark all LSE boards descend into a rather childish slanging match which, while hilariously entertaining to the outsider, is not terribly informative (see VAL and MIN for but two examples). I looked at this early last year and stayed my hand, a decision I have not come to regret.

Time to pull up the armchair open a few beers and watch the Tory party self destruct while kicking lumps out of each other. HS2 is just the beginning, wait until the rest of the rail system is nationalised, there is a commons vote on Huawei and the car industry starts to go belly up! All those Northern voters joining the dole queue at once. I am beginning to think that Jezza was just a cunning plan by the Labour Party so they could sit out the inevitable cluster***k that is Brexit. We are now about to be wedged between a well organised and coherent EU (no talk of further defections now!) and the "stable genius" that is the Donald, if he survives his impeachment that is.

I doubt there will be room for it amongst all the other disasters that will have to be recorded thereon!

UKW goes ex div on the 6th Feb 2020 and the payment date is the 21st Feb. No figure has yet been provided for the amount per share.

As of 5am 28th Jan: The number of confirmed cases in China has jumped to 4,515, up from 2,744 on 26 January, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Authorities also report that more than 100 people have died as a result of the infection. To date, researchers are struggling to accurately model the outbreak and predict how it might unfold, because the case-report data that’s being released by the Chinese authorities is incomplete. At present data only covers when a case is officially reported and not when that particular individual actually became ill. From NATURE 28/01/2020

I see the mighty Tim has suddenly acquired a social conscience and banned parents with children in his pubs from having more than two drinks! I recently (and very briefly) visited one of his hostelries in an unnamed Northern town (on a weekday lunchtime) and the place was sheer bedlam, overrun with prams/rugrats, looking more like a DHSS waiting room than a pub and sounding more like a zoo. Methinks it will take more than a ban on drunken parents to sort that lot out!

I was about to ditch these (along with Centrica) when the Ovo sale news broke. I hung on here and just got rid of the other dog and am mightily pleased with the outcome. The retail business was a millstone around SSE's neck and holding the whole enterprise back. Meanwhile over at Centrica they are stuck with price caps and having to compete with more nimble suppliers like Ovo and Octopus while "Hive" has been a nightmare and will never make them any money as there is too much competition in a sector that Centrica just don't have the knowhow to stay the course in.

One of my longest term holdings. Back in early 2018 I did wonder whether we would ever see the likes of £10 a pop again. In the meantime the dividends have all been reinvested during the long SP depression. I am well in profit and sticking with it. Now the threat of state ownership has been removed this should motor along nicely for 5 years or so and also be fairly Brexit proof as well. A bottom drawer share if ever there was one.

At least they are cancelling the shares even worse than this is buying back stock and then sitting on it in "Treasury". A quick way of accumulating shares to be given back back to your senior staff at a later date by way of "incentive" thus merely redistributing rather than reducing the total number of shares in play.

Previous opposition to using dispersed small nuclear reactors was one of security of the fissile material. However siting them at already heavily securitised sites to generate the electricity required to produce hydrogen for use as a acarbon-neutral fuel might circumvent the security concerns. This from Warren East "Rolls-Royce, Europe’s biggest maker of jetliner engines, is pitching the nuclear reactors it also manufactures as the most effective way of powering production of carbon-neutral synthetic fuel without draining national grids. Small reactors could be located at plants to generate the large amounts of electricity needed to secure the hydrogen used in the process".

Could not agree more. My faveourite gin is Monkey 47..........made in Bavaria. I have laid in stock in case of supply difficulties post Brexit :-)

Quite right GS, while the annual rate of revenue growth in the UK Gin market may have fallen from a peak in 2016 the overall market is still set to grow significantly over the next five years or so. In conclusion, we will be drinking an awful lot of the stuff for the foreseeable future and so FEVR's market will also grow in tandem. The key for FEVR going forward is overseas sales. The marketing/distribution investment FEVR are making in the USA ,while hitting revenues in the short-term, is a huge positive for the company.

Skier1, Judging by your posts elsewhere you are a proper little ray of sunshine (not). Are you sure that you are not clinically depressed? I would try Prozac :-)

"Just a quick look at the chart" and buy a company that makes chocolate in January FFS. Cannot stop laughing where do these people come from.............

Same here got in (deliberately) in 2014 and have taken both rights issues in full and reinvested all dividends. This is a great share and has never given me a moments worry. Not overly concerned at the forthcoming dilution as company seems to have a sound strategy and has glided quietly into the FTSE100 as well.

The outgoing Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been appointed by the Prime Minister as a key adviser for the UN climate change conference, COP26. Boris Johnson confirmed Mr Carney today as the Prime Minister’s Finance Adviser for the conference. In the job, Mr Carney will advise the government on what banks, pension funds and insurers should be doing to help tackle climate change. The position will be part time and pro-bono.

Oxo42 as the crow flies yes but try doing it by road and it flies up to over 850 miles and by public transport the current record was set in August 2017 using 20 buses/coaches, in three days, 2 hours and 47 minutes! HS2 will be built as Boris is now deeply into retaining his voting base Ooop North much of which resides in areas that will directly benefit from the infrastructure. Oh and he will build a third runway at Heathrow, but that just to spite the London Labour vote!

Time to make some money (or at least not lose any unnecessarily) out of climate change. Firstly dump owt to do with coal as Blackrock CEO Larry Fink today announced In his annual letter to chief executives, that "they must act or face increasing anger from investors concerned about how unsustainable business practices might curb future wealth. He went on to say that BlackRock would get out of investments that presented high sustainability-related risk, including coal producers, as it participated in what he described as a "fundamental reshaping of finance". Unlike governments where talk is cheap (Trump) this is real money shifting here, so beware getting left behind holding the tatters of the fossil fuel based economy. Time to stop the pointless arguments about the causes and harness the new wave of change maties! Boomers of course not included as they are too old and blinkered to see the writing on the wall (probably holding UKOG).

Bridgedogg1, you hold VAL as well as UKOG! My heart goes out to you. I hope you didn't take a punt on SXX as well?