Member Info for horace678

Still, there might be some merit to selling so close to the year end, in view of CGT.

Yes, you did well to hang on.

Yes, they are still good value.

and, what do you know, the price is still going up !

I'm so obsessed, my cat is called Ashcroft.

Re Dods, Ashcroft could likely brush the dust of one of his shell companies - SHOK or SHLP (worth £3m and £4m respectively).

Also, Andrew Wilson in a non-exec director of Dods. Mr Wilson is Ashcroft's corporate finance/M&A whiz. Mr Wilson would be the type to draw up the paperwork in the event of a deal.

There are in fact 2 Lord A's at Dods at the moment as Lord Ashcroft has appointed Lord Adonis to the board. Ashcroft has 26% (?) of Dods and (as we all know), were he to own the magic 30%, he be obliged to put in an offer for the entire shareholding (Once upon a time, Lord A owned 29.9% of Corporate Services Group). Ashcroft has been in politics recently and indicated in the press before the election that he was planning to expand into media. So in answer to your question, yes, I think he is up to something.

But we are dealing in shares, after all, the price of which can go down as well as up. Who's to say the price won't go down to 300p or 250p again before rising further?

This company has a PE of 7 and a forward PE of 5, plus Ashcroft's team are turning it round splendidly. I think there's still a long way to go upward also and Ashcroft would want to see a return on his money. I remember in 1999 when he had a pop at buying CSG the first time round at a proposed price between 80p-120p before picking them up finally in May 2008 for 2p. So Ashcroft probably bought some much higher.

i must admit I sold 20% of my holding just now - I have had experience of buying shares that go right up to the top and then come back down again and one the way down one hopes that they'll recover...

Should we be greedy at this point or should we be feeling the fear?

I wonder what Alan Greenspan would say? Irrational exuberance or an efficient market?

I based that on a valuation of about twice the shareholders' equity. Which would still put the shares in that region.

According to ADVFN, the shares had a good write-up in www.scsw.co.uk - not that I subscribe to this publication.

Am wondering if it's going to burst and come down again...as we all know, what goes up, must come down!

Yes, saw this - I have a small holding in the company.

I've had these shares in one form or another since the late 90s as Impellam has been through a variety of manifestations, merges, demerges, name changes and so on. In fact the price drop first started during the Times campaign vs Ashcroft in 1999. So for me, it's not so much a question of making money as of getting the money back after waiting long enough - I guess I'm probably into profit on these ones now... aside from my personal story, I think IPEL shows what a good job Ashcroft does of turning companies round, going in with his management team and kicking ass....he's not a charlatan, he's prepared to go in, roll his sleeves up and do a good day's work to make the company ship-shape.

Yes, either it is the same person buying shares in dribs and drabs or it's one horse bolting and all the others follow...BTW, I told a friend to buy these and he got them right at the bottom (26p) - he sold out at 200p, now his wishes he hadn't !

Any ideas why? Apart from the obvious fact that the company is doing well and the shares are undervalued..