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https://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/rclbqxjq/national-express-annual-report-and-accounts-2022.pdf

Definitely. One of the analysts even asked if they had considered selling off part of the business to pay down debt and they said they could, but don't need to as all is running well.

If they needed cash then they certainly wouldn't be paying a dividend.

Inbound takeover offer I reckon.

lol whoops.

Maybe we should chat more about shares with positive stories now just in case

Kool what board is that? I've not heard anywhere of an RI and they even said at their annual results presentation that they don't need the money

Thanks Paddy. According to Google though, if I'd been in there instead of here for the last 6 months then I'd still be 50% up????

Hi Paddy, no I missed that thankfully. I have seen rights issues before (where for each where for each number of x shares you have, you get to buy , amount more at a set price), but this one sounded more complex to me. I've not known one where people could profit from selling their rights. I only have limited experience of it thankfully.

Yes Mulder, I started a thread this morning suggesting just that

They are having a better day than us though Paddy.

I was looking at Tui, but the rights issue was so complicated I can't actually work out what a good buy in price is. Is the price now actually "worse" than the £15 or because people received rights to buy which they could sell are they still better off? I read somewhere about 450 is the break even point so still over 10% to go if right?

Thanks JG

I'll drop something in too. If there's enough of us mentioning speculation then you never know.

Josey and GI investors who are at a reportable level (over 5% I think) can't have been averaging down or selling because there haven't been any RNS releases

JG, what approach did you take with your email?

You couldn't make it it. An in fact Liberum have even upped their rating to 125 Hold.

Even as an average target between them this is 181. This is so oversold it's unbelievable and continues to push back to COVID lows.

That's still in incredible upside from here. I assume it's still a buy? Where have they published please?

Josey, if we wait another 1-2 weeks and this continues to drop each day then we'll be around £1 and all a 15-20% jump will do is push this back to where it is now

Thanks Peaky, so that takes into account the value of the debt, all assets etc, but disregards future earning potential. Is that right or does it also account for that?

Further to conversations here yesterday and suggestions that a company only needs to reveal takeover discussions once they 'leak' otherwise they would be under NDA.

I thought that if as many of us as possible write a short email asking that very question whether we could potentially persuade them to either deny or release an RNS?

The contact details are here: https://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/investors/investor-contacts/

For background, this was an extract from the Telegraph on 16th September:

National Express shares rise on takeover rumours
Shares in National Express have jumped 7pc amid rumours of a possible takeover approach.

The coach operator was mentioned in a so-called 'uncooked' Betaville report, which said it had attracted interest from a financial buyer such as a private equity firm or infrastructure fund

The last director dealing was on 29th September, suggesting that potentially since then they have been unable to trade due to insider knowledge as a result of the BoD having knowledge of the interest and therefore being under restriction.

I don't think that it would be enough for just 1 or 2 of us to write in, but if they receive a flurry of emails they might. What does everyone think? Worth a shot?

Thank you for clarifying. I agree, you would imagine he would want to buy in. Especially as his fellow director's have invested much higher than these levels.

Peaky, does that book value take everything into account and are takeovers usually below book value as PE is after a bargain?

I can kind of imagine how it would be presented in an agreement so it's not entirely unfeasible, but seems an odd way of doing it.

The logic would be the Director needs some skin in the game. If they don't have any stock held in reserve for such incentives, then their could have chosen to pay him extra under the understanding he must spend a certain amount on stock.

Would be good to read through it though.