Member Info for JohnLewis79

At what mrkt price will you tender your shares. If below 100 (currently) you might but say 97 or as low as 95 one would tender all hoping your filled! The lower the mrkt price the more shares will be tendered that's pretty obvious especially for 6 figure holders. The risk is you get severely scaled back and have to sell the balance at the lower mrkt price. Of course one can ignore the 'noise' and do nothing..... not that I would recommend doing that unless your hopelessly undecided so a bit of 'masterly inactivity' may work on the theory that whatever you do will be wrong (that's me), so staying pat your still invested in Spo's future across the pond, albeit at perhaps a lower sp. Anyone looking to 2018 a year of trading ex pools won't be much worried about that. With Trumps pro business policies and the Wall St love-in continuing now looks a good time to be invested over there. However there are dark clouds on the horizon, namely int rates rising this year possibly as many as 3 times which would impact on spend, also the US debt ceiling which might force the Fed hand and lastly Trumps budget details on Thrusday which looks like the military are going to be big beneficiaries at someone else's expense. Holders will have to bone up on the nitty gritty of the US economy and much else. Difficult enough here!!!

I don't think they want pis shares! The iis would not really be much interested at c the current price...so is that the way Spo treats it's shareholders? Only really till Friday to decide one way or another. I'm leaving as I think I will be able to buy back lower down when all the dust settles. We shall see.

I have overlooked the 'compound' interest case that Littlewoods won at a recent court hearing and which we have submitted way back. Whether this is material I'm not sure as this could be a vat case prt two....concluding way into the future so best to ignore for now.

That is by 5.00pm on 20/3...next Monday.

Brokers PH est that Spo will make c £5m (net?) year '17 or c 2.70p on the expected reduced amount of shares in issue of say 186m. If debt was zero and little in the way of cash what would the business be worth? A guess of say 10-15 x earnings? That would be a sp of c 40p....ish. Add to this our cash pile of £83m for the Pools which I guess we will have to pay tax on at c 20% reduces to £67m or c 36pps. So feasibly an sp of c 76p.....if you take 15x earnings and a full 36p for our cash which the mrkt may or may not value at in a few months time. My guess at anywhere between 70-80 is fully valuing the Co bearing in mind that our cash balance is likely to be used this year on an aquisition(s) that may not be revenue enhancing this & next year. I cannot see how we can be valued at £208m ex the pools. That would be valuing our R&V business at 45+ x earnings (£121m). BOFPCalcs of course and I may be missing something obvious but thought I'd throw it out there. Anyways at 101.5 we're at the T/O price which might reduce the nos of shares tendered (the plan all along?) I'm taking they were for cancellation (no point in treasury). Be interesting to see how the stock performs between now and the due date next week.

I should have clarified by OUT being tendering all your shares hoping your successful. I see no point in tendering just a % of ones holding reducing / diluting your position. This would not suit me, it might work for others? So good luck in whatever you decide.

Forgetting the tender offer I think it's a simple decision to make. Do you want out or to stay in? Out you'll take up the offer. In...you risk the market adjusting the shares down to reflect profits being less this year but don't care because of the opportunities ahead for Spo in the US. As I said before happy days if the sp stays around 90-100 ex all!

Wonder whether the offer has been pitched so tightly at virtually zero premium to speak of is because they do not want holders to tender their shares? We're these shares for cancellation or treasury? It's probably in the statement somewhere and I've missed it. Whatever I'm sure that those who want out at 101.5 will tender all their shares in the expectation of the co being worth less down the line. That we cannot know for sure our mrkt value may well remain the same bolsted by our cash. Sometimes investors take a dim view of co's with large cash balances not 'earning their keep'..ie a drag on earnings and the potential to make hasty unwise decisions. This may or may not happen so a 'do nothing' / 'wait and see' is an option for the undecided.... Norton1....a tender offer, well a decent one allows holders to sell to the co a % of their shares at a premium free of costs and reducing the shares outstanding, as opposed to receiving a taxed dividend on money already taxed which you have paid dealing costs on to boot. Note I said premium which so far is zeroish. Of course by the 20th the picture could have changed and their might be a small premium?

Wrong bloody board!!

Big game tonight...Ire odds on (4/7) to beat Wales so no bet for me, that's when Wales win of course! Scot at 4's v Eng is only for the Jocks to lose money on!.....Big drop off in Sphere trades/bargains this week, don't read anything into that we've probably been 'overbought' anyway. The ask has moved up over the wk from 5.22 to 5.37 which does not feature on any scale I know of. Won't be long before they will be moving prices up/down by 0.025% points. The bod still resolutely refrain from buying any cheap stock which is beginning to worry me, so we might be forgiven for thinking that P ain't doing the buizz! Oh well have a good wk/end all...

Assume they cancel 20m shares that leaves 186m outstanding. Ebita for Racing & Venues was c £12m giving us c 0.64 pps or a pe/r of 15 x earnings. That looks steep imo even allowing for our pools cash which might be less than £83m after expenses etc...So while a nice cushion how much value will the mrkt put on our cash? Soon after completion do you think the sp will go above the 101.5? I very much doubt it. Losing 50% off our bottom line cannot equate to a mrkt cap of £200m (that would be near 17 x) if the sp remained unchanged. Just a thought. But heh.... happy days if it does!

Agreed the offer is derisory...but this is Spo afterall... if you hold remember our two remaining divis- ions produced pre tax £12.1m. So on completion the co is not going to be worth £200m! If shares outstanding are c 180m after tender the per ratio would drop to around c 6p. Of course you would have c 45 p in cash so it's a trade off...cash now or later on. Your circumstances will dictate what you do. I intend to sell as I have been invested here too long and the offer which does not reward holders is a isps take!

In my first flush of enthusiasm I miss read the rns...as 115 instead of 1.015 which is a big diff! Current sp of 100.5 means your only saving dealing costs which is hardly worth bothering about. Days past the offer would be at a 10-15% premium so not exactly enticing us it? They might get this away but unlikely to be oversubscribed imo.

Two thoughts....1) the mrkt thinks the scale back will be pretty severe.2) they don't think the stock is worth 115 so will keep it around 100-5 so take your chances in getting fully allocated at 115 cos we ain't gonna give you that price.

Fully expect to get scaled back massively....more than 50% so it's a wait & see as the freeloaders will be joining the band wagon. Isspes me off that ive been a holder since Rodime days and gone through massive pain to get here and some Johnny come lately gets offered the same as me! That ain't right. It should have been offered only to those on the register at the announcemen date! FFS!

Offer 115. Kinda what I expected. Think I will accept in full.

...reasonably priced on a number of metrics? This is purely academic as once the pools are sold these nos will be history. The PER I have taken the last 6 years p/tax earnings as an average and the current sp of 102 this comes out at 11 x. Very reasonable. The price to book (under 1.5 is good) comes in at 1.46. Good again. If you multiply the P/E r by the price-to-book (a number under 25 is good) comes in at 16.06 yet again an excellent number. Of course we have known for years that Spo was undervalued...now more reasonably priced since the vat & pools sale. At least I took advantage of the markets over reaction to vat set backs...back in the day when the stock hit low 50's. Nice to have ones judgement validated for once!

Seems strange that one would sell pre Tender Offer which is a near certainty to be offered above the sp at that time. Perhaps sellers are thinking the sp will drift down to low 90's so cash out now? Might be a good move as the price has little staying power and if it hits 90 the TO might be + 10%? Should have sold out at 104 ish and bought back lower down but hindsight 'n all...! Worst way when all is done & dusted we'll have the two divisions, no debt and at least 45pps in cash. I like the look of that!

I think they are trying to bore us to death here!....succeding'n all!!

We have lots of news to hear. The pools consideration and what plans the co has for the monies. No use in sitting on millions earning zilch. The tender offer not expected to be generous as this will be allocated pro rata to ones holding.... they say before the new financial year. I assume there will be no costs. Do we still own Walton HQ or will our HQ transfer to somewhere in the States? Anyone think Penrose will continue? Guess with Hemmings support he will. Whatever the case we need to start off flying in the USA as little outside of our Betfred deal will be left in the UK. The bod have had enough time to consider all options to increase shareholder value, so once the T/O is out of the way I'm expecting Draft Day to become a fully owned part of our Racing & Digital division.