Member Info for Grayling

Comments out now indicate that this announcement took investors by surprise and hence the slump:

JPMorgan Cazenove said that while the collaboration was a “significant” positive for AstraZeneca’s pipeline, the equity raise was a surprise so soon before the company releases safety data for its anaemia treatment roxadustat.
“The fact that AstraZeneca is raising more than it needs for the Daiichi deal speaks to the strain that the company’s balance sheet is already under, and the fact that this strain isn’t going to be resolved organically. Secondly, because although the potential for an equity funded deal had been discussed at some length over the last year?.?.?.?we believe investors had got more comfortable that such a deal wasn’t going to take place.”

At a total of some $3.5B the new shares represent about 3.2% of the market capitalisation of AZN as of yesterday ($108.94B). We are now down some 5.5%+ so the conclusion would be that at present the market thinks that AZN have overpaid for this asset. In contrast Daiichi stock is up some 16% on the news, indicating that the market thinks they have the better end of the deal. Time will tell.

Straightforward dilution of existing shareholder value, hence the significant fall today. Things may stabilise once the new shares are issued (2nd April). Could be good news in the long term.

"In 1996, I was in court in Blackpool accused of doing 125 mph in my utterly fabulous Subaru Impreza turbo.but I have never had an accident in my life." Well frankly I hope you picked up a long ban and a truly massive fine. Same argument as "my grandad smoked 100 cigs a day and lived to be 90" so smoking does not cause cancer. Sorry but your statement (and your choice of "car") tells me that you are exactly the sort of irresponsible imbecile that regulations like this are designed to eliminate from our roads.

Wids Try telling that to the family of the teenager killed in this recent fatal smash outside Essen https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8718008/millionaire-son-kills-friend-mclaren-motorway-crash/. If new legislation on maximum speed cuts out this sort of lunacy anywhere in Europe, then it will be well worth it.

I see that shorting in CNA is at a fairly low level (1.52% loaned out to Blackrock and Marshall Wace LLC). Has anyone kept track of the level of shorting in CNA over the past year and has it declined or been roughly constant?

Down from a high of 11.4% and 10 institution to 5.3% and 7 now. is the tide turning?

PS to last comment: Don't forget that VA were granted a seat on the board back in 2016 when their stake was far lower than the 10.49% they eventually accumulated.

This could be seen as a positive as Value Act are the kind of activist' investors that are not always welcome. It could be seen as sign that RR has turned itself around and VA are backing off somewhat from their initial aggressive approach to the RR management. They have not sold out either, just reduced their stake from 10.94% to 9.48%, perhaps they need the cash to fund an aggressive raid elsewhere?.

Wait and see what it does to road accident statistics and fatalities first. I can guarantee that if they drop significantly as a result of these new regs then they will be instantly accepted by the public and you would no more think of breaking the speed limit than lighting up a fag in a pub or restaurant. To give one example the A90 between Dunblane and Inverness has been subject to average speed camera checks for the past 5 years and fatalities 2014-17 almost halved compared with the 3 years prior to their introduction. As the mighty Bob sang "The times they are a changing".

Looks to me as if inclusion was priced in a good while ago. The institutions must have known this was highly likely and will have been buying for some time in anticipation of promotion to the top 100.

BJ I doubt that buying a cheap imported car post Brexit will be uppermost in the minds of the 186,000 people directly employed in car manufacturing and in excess of 856,000 people who are employed in the car manufacturing supply chain. So prospective UK job losses in the region of 1.04M plus and that is just car production. It might satisfy Minford's neat theoretical equations to let this sector go to the wall, but he will never have to live with the direct consequences. A bit like Keith Joseph's advice to Mrs T to let Liverpool go the way of Detroit. Thank god that was not allowed to happen.

£26bn order for 300 airliners from China and a blow to Boeing as they have opted for Airbus A320s (290), the direct competitor of the 737 max range. Little in it for Rolls directly though as only 10 RR powered A350s were part of the deal. As for the A320s it will be interesting to see how many end up powered by the IAE V2500 as I understand that RR still a major supplier to IAE in respect of this engine, for which RR originally developed the HP compressor before selling its stake in IAE to Pratt & Whitney.

The sugar tax is an unfortunate consequence of the actions of other mass market fizz producers who have blatantly promoted the over consumption of high sugar content drinks by children for many years now. No such tax on US sales though, so as these and other worldwide markets for Fevertree products expand, it will be less of a drag on profits.

The great Patrick Minford hero of the Brexiteers, but how many of those people who voted leave in Sunderland and Derby were aware of his predictions for the effects of Brexit on UK manufacturing and car production in particular?
In 2012, Professor Minford told MPs on Westminster’s foreign affairs committee that car manufacturers in the UK would have to be wound down if Britain left the EU. In the run-up to the referendum in 2016 he also said Brexit would "eliminate manufacturing.”. he went on to say "“It will be in our interests to do it, just as in the same way we ran down the coal and steel industries,” and "“if we left the EU, it seems likely that we would mostly eliminate manufacturing, leaving mainly industries such as design, marketing and hi-tech. But this shouldn’t scare us.”

You are missing the point. The fact that Russia's GDP is about 60% of ours has little or nothing to do with the price of eggs. Russian GDP was a joke throughout the latter part of the 20th century but it did not stop Russian military spending/expansion now did it? If Putin decides to spend 4-5% of his paltry GDP on military hardware development and deployment, he is certainly going to outspend us (1.8% of GDP) by a significant factor (even correcting for GDP imbalance) and has done so since 2012. The Russian population will of course suffer, but when has any Russian leader really cared about that? Only the collapse of commodity prices and hence the ruble has held back his spending ambitions in the last 2-3 years but that cycle will probably change eventually.

I rest my case. When did China openly poison anyone using either Polonium or nerve agent in the UK? Or invade a sovereign neighbour (3 times in the last decade). Keep an eye on the Baltic states because they are the next dominoes in Putin's little game as he "goes to the aid" of Russian citizens living there and then what? All this without mentioning Putin's meddling in Syria and Venezuela. However, I suppose the Guardian made all of this up and he has been a good boy really. I am not saying that China is much better either but they deal more in internal repression and expansion into uninhabited South China sea atolls. Their aim is to win by economic means, while Putin is much more of an old fashioned military bully. PS I hate the f*****g Guardian personally its a shit boring read more of a Private Eye and Viz fan meself.

Sounds like Ineos is your ideal hold ....except like Dyson they are private so you cannot invest. For all of your steadfastly positive input here you will be sorely missed................NOT. Try getting a life!

That is why our Jezza is so keen on getting out of the EU and has consistently been against EU membership from the get-go. Cannot have those pesky EU rules and regulations curtailing his powers to control the UK economy now can we! Same goes for our furry friend Jim (Ineos) Ratcliffe. Anything from the EU that legislates in favour of either environmental protection or workers rights is anathema to our Jim although he just calls it "anti-competitive".

More often than not this is due to pre-opening indicative pricing on the US markets. If it looks like a bloodbath in New York is on the way then the FTSE dives in anticipation. Quite often the NYSE rallies late in the day after London is closed and this is reflected in a good opening the following day on the FTSE. Never count your gains until the Yanks are awake.