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Probably the “John Major” of the CFO world. Shareprice been kicked to death under his tenure.
Seems Ms Whites position is on a knife edge. I guess if she falls on it or is pushed, she’ll be back in the security of the Civil Service.
John Lewis has missed its profits targets. Staff bonuses are likely to be scrapped once again. And the turnaround plan has been pushed back by another couple of years. The news just keeps getting worse and worse at the company that used to be the UK’s favourite retailer, and the position of its chairman, Dame Sharon White, is looking less tenable all the time.
And yet, by hanging on so long, she is not just damaging her own reputation, and the recovery of the company she leads. She is doing something far worse. She is fatally undermining the whole concept of employee ownership – because if an organisation can’t get rid of a leader whom it appears is clearly failing then the whole model will be damaged beyond repair.
Three years into the job, it is surely obvious that Dame Sharon has not been a success at the John Lewis Partnership. This week, the owner of the department stores and the Waitrose supermarket chain revealed another six months of losses, and a delay to its much-hyped turnaround plan.
Or was he holding out for the divvie before he exercised any plans.
Drahi will have picked up a cool £132m today from his 24.5% share in dividends. That should keep his bankers at bay for a few months.
Yes BP best to live a little while you’re able to, Marco Island nice thought but too many alligators for me. Probably less teeth there than on here tho. Haha.
Incidentally, what do you call an alligator who is wearing crocs on his feet?
A traitor.
Coronation, August has rarely been good for BT or the FTSE in general. I expect next week to pickup, world events aside.
Doctor Rodders, finger on the pulse as usual, if BT were your patient I guess you’d have to prescribe a heart transplant, a new kidney, 2 new hips, a hearing aid and a pair of furry zip up slippers, this share has lost its youth. Thing is only DT has got the fizz to get BT’s mojo back.
Roll a bid
DYOR
Pete, I forgot you had your own business, can you give Rodders a job, he’s got a fantastic bedside manner, loves meeting new people, he’s creative, has people skills, shows leadership qualities. Act now before BT Engineering snaps him up.
SoM - “P.S. I remember the days when you had to tip BT engineers to fix your phone line.”
Ferris………A scurrilous accusation against BT engineers. I don’t believe you. When do you imagine this happened?
I would guess pre war, the first one. I would also guess Rod’s commission didn’t span back to the Battle of Rorke’s Drift.
Still here Rod, just making hay while the sun shines, the big yellow fella in the sky. Too many on here living and breathing in echos chambers, and at worst snowflakes. Fleccy is a strong personality and can fight his own corner as is a number of other characters (and I mean characters). This is the only board I write on, , even tho I have many different shares, this board is LSEs very own Coronation Street. There is wealth of Knowledge on here but it must be challenged on every occasion to give representive view.
DYOR
There’s a theory that if you bet on roulette, Black or Red and lose, you can always double your bet next time to get your money back, if you lose again, double your bet again to win your money back, and so on. It’s a logical strategy but you risk running out of money, or the house not taking your bet too far down the line. But you will at best win your money back plus the initial bet as profit. This is the nearest thing I associate to averaging down on buying more of the same share with dividends that you could use on buying different shares or using it to live a more interesting life. I’m quite happy for the share price to rise by what ever means, bid, successful bid or just plane old market forces. That way I can either spend some of it or diversify into other shares, a choice not a blind strategy.
So, what are you saying Fuze?, as Trigger would say!
Hi Nige, I feel that DT are best placed to make a bid, IF that’s their mission, and who HMG would approve. Should DT not be interested, then Tim wants his money back, that’s what I read from the TelcoTitan piece. I play a lot of poker and see/hear a lot of talk that’s the opposite to their thoughts, call it amateur smokescreens, some are good at it, but it’s best to keep quiet. I’d like to think Tim is not going to give his hand away cheaply or is he bluffing, double bluffing.
Hi Nige, I think Tim is no different from most of us on this platform (except AP possibly), he/DT is a shareholder with a lot of skin in the game, he sees a new GEO coming in and has quite simply stated the shareprice is top of your her new work stack. I believe if this improves, DT get much of their money back, and possibly DT pursue other priority interests, if it doesn’t then “I’ll” come in and sort it out. Of course I don’t think Tim is holding out for the year, he will want the SP to steadily rise by January when Alison takes the hot seat. If not, she will have no time. Of course Tim will also want to protect this 12% and will not entertain any bargain basement bids from whoever. On the Drahi side of things, he is well down on his investment currently with massive interest on his loans, but does that matter in the scheme of his long term plans or mission. So currently his 25% ish slice of BT is less than what he bought it for and he owes lots of interest. However if he is to bid for BT, he gets the whole pie for diddly squat, and of course we all know how much BT is really worth. So the year timescale, Tim gave Alison is no different to the rolling 6 months bid freeze out Drahi give the City each time he increases his holding. If a bid comes in from any source these 2 will go hell for leather to increase/protect their holding. Imagine the indoor velodrome sprint race where both cyclist look disinterested and then one makes the first move and it’s an explosive finish.
DYOR
I guess if they went down to 20p you’de be the happiest man/woman alive.
I read an article the other day stating that Sotheby’s auction volumes were well down, and that items were sold for less than expected, so a double whammy on commissions. And as a result Sothebys have been marked down in value. And as we all know who owns Sothebys?
Still, Vodafone are up, but don’t tell Fleccy.
Ever tried Virgin?
Shaking the tree being ramped up!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/31/new-bt-boss-allison-kirkby-philip-jansen
“Honestly I can’t see what the solution to this is,” said Karidis, who believes investors should sell the company’s shares. Those alternative providers – known in the industry as “altnets” – are “growing and becoming a bigger threat, not a lesser threat”, he said.
I find it amusing that Alison has already unified this board to agree on a WTF conclusion?!
I agree that why a top FTSE 100 company can’t draw a bigger name with proven ability to manage BT, and we end up with somebody nobody has ever heard of.
Very strange. Unless this placates a warring board room.