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I expect that with the lockdown easing in Scotland, in particular, families allowed to meet in gardens the sales of BBQ's, Alcohol and Food will go through the roof which is obviously good news for all the Supermarket chains. The good weather is also helping. A definitive buy now. My wife has been on the Sharesave scheme for three years with the buy option price of £1.84 being made available in the next few weeks--didn't look too good last week but could be much more appealing if today's surge continues for a few weeks.
Tui have shut down all their telephone lines and are not refunding customers as they are legally obliged to do (within 14 days).
Anybody holding shares in this company should have a look at the reviews on Trip advisor and you will have a better understanding of the outrageous way Tui are treating their loyal customers. Tui have managed to alienate all their customers and they will pay the price for that with everyone booking holidays with alternative companies such as Jet2 who have refunded all cancelled holidays.
If i was a Shareholder i would cut my losses and get out now.
It's a huge advantage having their own food production infrastructure and also the tie up with Amazon. If there is one company with the ability to ramp up a delivery service, it's Amazon.
The news that an extra 3,500 are to be employed to increase deliveries has obviously went down well with the market.
My wife had to help out at the checkout today and not a single customer had a trolley under £60.00 with most around the £90 to £120 Mark.
Panic buying is now in full swing.
I don't hold shares in Tui but we do use them two or three times a year for Holidays.
We are booked for two weeks in Paphos (May'20) and we paid the final balance 3 weeks ago. If we had known how bad this Coronavirus thing was going to be i would definitely not had paid this balance and forgone the deposit.
I honestly can't see many people booking holidays abroad now until this scare is over so it really must be grim for all holiday companies at the moment. We will probably still go ahead with the Holiday assuming it is not pulled by the Govt or Tui themselves.
Meeting concluded..all department heads have to reapply for their jobs. Major restructuring within stores. Well done Morrisons, you now have another 3,500 pssd off workers.
A meeting with all heads of departments is scheduled today. I don't have any info in relation to the reasoning behind this meeting but common sense tells me that it isn't going to end well. Watch this space.
It will be essentially the same deal that May had albeit with a few amendments. It will go through Parliament simply because everyone wants an end to constant delays. Labour have many MP's who are silently wanting a Brexit solution in order to avoid a general election. Having said that, a good deal will also decimate Labour even if the Parliament goes full term and to be honest they will deserve it.
It's interesting that David Potts has described takeover talks as "pure speculation"
That's what Politicians say when they know something is true and therefore can't deny it.
The fact that Amazon have further strengthend their partnership with Morrisons it may soon make sense to them to simply buy them out.
£5 Billion is loose change to Amazon.
Even without takeover rumours i think the SP will hold up well now and may peak at £2.30 over the next few months.
Overall it's not too bad and the City reaction should be favourable. Sales are flat but against the previous years good weather, Royal Wedding and World Cup. Profit is up around 5% which is good considering level sales. New initiatives in effect and in the pipeline and quite an optimistic outlook for the future. The results are not spectacular by any manner of means but realistically about as good as we could expect them to be.
I think a takeover is the only thing that will rescue the SP now. It obviously can't be with any of the other big three due to the Monopoly Commissions recent ruling on the Asda/Sainsbury merger. The only realistic candidate would be Amazon and they do already have a relationship with MRW and it would make a lot of sense for both companies. Amazon have already dipped their toes into the grocery market, have the delivery interstructure in place and the stores could also be utilised for selling Amazons own products and Independent Amazon sellers own fast moving products with a sellers premium fee being charged - - naturally.
If i had a crystal ball and knew for definite that Amazon would takeover Morrisons we would hold onto the shares because they would go up to £2.80--£3.00 practically overnight.
My wife is two years into the Morrisons share save paying £350.00 a month with the "special" buy price at £1.84 ( It's not so special now) . She will probably now stop the scheme and get back the money paid so far. To be honest, from what i hear from my wife about the significant problems in store with poor moral and severe understaffing plus reports of falling sales reaching almost 10% across local branches i think the SP accurately reflects this. A new Aldi and Lidl within a few miles of my wife's store is now taking customers away from Morrisons and it's not going to get better any time soon--unfortunately.
Asian Markets are having another bad day, Dow Jones finished well down after Ftse closed yesterday and Dow Jones Futures is down. Looking very much like another big fall across the Ftse today with Lloyds dropping at least another 1p. I can't see things getting better anytime soon.
I sold my holding at 65.21p a few months ago and closed my dealing account (AJ Bell) so i wouldn't be tempted to trade again.
I must confess i was sorely tempted to get back in last week at 52p.
I don't think that Lloyds will ever go below 45p but could go to 80p very swiftly if a favourable Brexit Solution is found.
Anyone buying at the current price in my opinion can relax, safe in the knowledge that Lloyds is a fundamentally sound business and generating significant profits.
If it was possible to get a guarantee that the SP would be 51p in five years time then its a no brainer investment due to the 6% yield.
Should read "Corporation".
I think i may be turning into Donald Trump--heavens above.
Ocelot, you are quite correct but i was really referring more to loopholes that Companies employ to get around having to pay tax (Coporation / Vat).
I've read the RNS relating to the Belgium Tax Demand. Sports Direct still do not deny that there is a case to answer. They simply state that is not probable that they will have to pay the sum demanded ( that is almost certainly true). The problem is that it is quite probable that they will need to pay something - - it could be anything from £10M to £400M. Also whatever Sports Direct were up to will need to stop immediately and that will probably affect profits significantly.
I remember Starbucks had a subsidiary in the EU (Holland or Luxembourg) and this subsidiary was overcharging Starbucks in the UK for the coffee beans. The profits the subsidiary was making was taxed at a very low rate but this meant that the UK division were paying a high price for coffee and this reduced the profits in the UK that would have been taxed at a higher rate.
I have no ideal if Sports Direct had their own loophole but it looks as though the Belgium tax authorities think they do.
I am also amazed that the Share Price did not fall much further but if i was a shareholder i would think that I've dodged a bullet and i would waste no time in getting out of this Company. Things are not going to get any better any time soon (if ever).
I have read the Financial Statement in full and the Guardian is absolutely correct with their analogy.
As for the Belgium tax demand that was mentioned, almost as an afterthought, right at the end of the rambling report.
The most crucial thing is what Sports Direct did not say. They did not say that the Tax demand was outrageous and wholly without any foundation whatsoever - - - Sports Direct rather meekly say that they will enter discussions with the Tax authorities and are confident that the Penalty would not apply. They are basically admitting that they have a case to answer which does not bode well.
Also how on earth can this Tax demand (with interest and penalties) suddenly appear out of the blue--that is simply not possible and Sports Direct must have been fully aware of what was going on in the background.
I have a theory that Sports Direct knew that a Tax demand was innement and waited for it to come through before the results were posted in order to get the share price as low as possible in order to buyback shares at the lowest possible price, perhaps to go back to private ownership. As i said, it's just a theory.
I genuinely feel sorry for anybody holding shares in Sports Direct. The news about the Belgium tax demand is absolutely devastating for anyone invested in this Company. As a Glasgow Rangers supporter i would never ever spend a penny in any Sports Direct Store and neither would approx 500,000 other Rangers supporters residing in West Central Scotland. The same goes (i suspect) for every Newcastle United supporter.
I think that anyone who thinks that's the share price will fall by 20% on Monday is an optimist. £605 Million is half the value of Sport Direct and significantly more than Annual profits, particularly now given the money being hemorrhaged by HOF.
This may be of interest to many of you.
There is a website that predicts Lloyds SP for every day up to a month in advance.
Google search "lloyds future share price" and then click onto the poundf website.
It's quite interesting but like forecasting the weather i don't believe you can accurately predict more than a few days into the future.