Member Info for LordAdam

I can see that at some point in time, probably sooner rather than later, there is going to be some questions asked in a legal context or public inquiry as to why some commercial operator had not deployed ADAS systems to detect micro-sleeping or driver inattention. Both before then, and subsequently, there will be a defensive deployment by companies of this technology in order to diminish or absolve their liability. At that point which ever company has proven technology deployed in this field are going to find themselves very popular indeed. Mike

Thanks for sharing that sell/buy information with us ... that's very helpful. I must say you got a good deal there, well done! Looks like you sold 21,741 at 92.000p and bought back 21.692 at 92.138 ... a very efficient way of doing it ... and as you say, protecting the capital gains on your �20k worth of shares for �45 is well worth it. I'm in a different position in that my ISA is meant to be income based (HYP and all that) but it still contains a substantial amount of TRAK shares which I bought at the �2.50 level. I really shouldn't have that tied up in a non-income share, but it will have to stay that way until I can turn a capital gain on it and convert to something else. Mike

Yes ... it's not possible to transfer shares into an ISA -- the HMRC won't allow it unless the shares are held in an employer's shareholding scheme. The shares have to be sold outside the ISA, triggering potential capital gains/losses, incurring sale costs and then bought again within the ISA triggering more purchase costs, stamp duty and spread related costs ... plus potential market gains/loses if the price moves for/against you. The spread on TRAK is relatively huge ... if anyone does "Bed and ISA" some TRAK shares I and others would be very interested to know if you managed to get a decent deal from a market maker on the spread! Mike

Death is never a popular subject and despite the cost of living there are few volunteers wanting to give it up as a cost saving exercise. But something that may be of interest to those of us considering and debating the finer points of the ISA question is that the rules on inheritance were changed recently for ISA's. It used to be the case that on death the ISA wrapper surrounding a deceased persons ISA was dissolved and the contents of the ISA dropped back into the estate where they were potentially subject to IHT, and of course lost their tax exempt status. This was most relevant to a surviving partner where the couple had run two ISAs. On the first death the deceased ISA ceased and the income and potential capital gains from those investments would be exposed to taxation within the surviving partner's income etc. The rules have now changed and an ISA can be passed on death to a surviving partner without breaking the ISA wrapper. This is a significant improvement if, as we do, you run two large ISA's as a couple and rely on them for the generation of tax-free income in your later years. As always, whilst I try to be as accurate and correct as I can be, check the details yourself if they are important to you! Mike.

Cabman/Londoner ... I've been doing some research on the idea of doing an 'in specie' transfer of shares from a holding outside of an ISA into the ISA. I've used in specie transfers to shift shares seamlessly and for zero cost between my wife and myself to manipulate dividend payments and so maximize our tax-free income. The idea of doing the same with shares outside of the ISA into the ISA would have been very attractive in terms of cost and flexibility. Alas ... the perceived wisdom of the pundits is that you can only take shares into an ISA via a 'Bed-And-ISA' method which entails a sale and a repurchase ... that's two lots of dealing, plus 0.5% of stamp duty, plus the crystalization of any capital gains, a loss on the spread of the shares and an arbitrary gain/loss depending on the market. Not satisfied with what the pundits had to say I consulted the HMRC themselves to find the definitive answer. Turns out you can transfer shares straight into an ISA but only if the shares are part of an employer's share scheme and then only up to the value of �20,000. You can't transfer general shares into the ISA. The ruling is: "You can�t transfer any non-ISA shares you already own into an ISA unless they�re from an employee share scheme." and they pointed me to this page (https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/how-isas-work) for further explanation. Looks like there's no slick way of doing it other than selling outside and buying back on the inside :( Mike

I just need to tease this apart a little ... you've got "3745 rights currently sitting in my normal trading account." That suggests that you've got 11,235 GFRD shares sat in that account (1:3 rights ratio), even at today's prices that's �95,000 (ish). The cash required to take up the rights is �21,271 as you say. But then you start to talk about making a �20,000 contribution to your ISA? Are these share's in an ISA or what? If they are in then you have a 'minor' problem ... if they aren't then you are living in cookoo land ... they are outside the ISA and your whole share investment in GFRD is unprotected as regards capital and income tax. Either way ... someone who is suggesting that they have �95,000 worth of shares in one company, or �9,500 worth of dividend income from one share needs to be better informed about what they are doing. Mike

Yes, the old scrip dividend mechanism was RDSA only ... which was fine if you were in Europe, but a pain if you were in the UK. My advice would be to bank the dividend as cash then set a limit order to buy at the price on the dividend day less about 2-3%. You'll get it in due course and that will make the difference between the scrip mechanism and individual purchases. If you are feeling lucky/patient then set it for -5% ... who can say ... but better in some ways to be in rather than out, with Shell that is! Mike

Last year we had an end of year trading update on the 28th April. Does any one know if a similar update is scheduled this year, and if so when? Mike

It's an interesting thought ... but suppose the cash surplus that the company has, which belongs to the shareholders, were returned via a monthly dividend rather than being used to artifically increase the EPS etc. What effect would that have on the share price? With a fixed income stream the shares would be more reliable as an income investment and I rather suspect would maintain their value. Have a look at GCP which pays a fixed income stream quarterly to see how boring such a share could be in capital terms. As it is the current usage of our money relies heavily on the market's sentiment to maintain or increase the share price (ie not guaranteed) compared to the certainty of cash in the bank for dividends. Also the only way to realise the cash from any (and we don't see much evidence of any) share price increase is to sell at least part of your holding. Mike

The RNS issued today (3/4/18) at 4.30 as the market went home ... David Jenkinson has just been given 481,957 shares at zero cost ... if I've got that right that's �12,193,512.10 at today's closing price. Tell me I must have this wrong ... that can't be right can it?

My2p ... you need to be careful here with the details ... I'm assuming that you already hold/own GFRD shares ... probably 90-92 of them? In your account you don't have the opportunity to buy 30 Nil paid rights shares at �2.60 ... you actually have your original 90-92 shares PLUS a new holding of 30 Nil paid rights shares. They are yours, they are in your account now at the moment. On the market today they are worth �2.60 and that's where the price comes from. You can sell them if you want or you can pay the rest of the price (�5.68) on the 9/13th of April. Once the rest of the money has been paid they become fully paid up shares and join your others in your account. At the end you should have 120-122 shares in your account.

Never, ever, think that 'buy-back' is in your interest ... it's not ... period ... Buy back is in the interest of the directors ... if you're lucky ... and a lot aren't ... as a side effect, and if enough other investors believe the spin, you may see a share price increase of some kind, at some point in time ... and if you sell then you may get some of the moeny back that you should have got as straight dividend. Mike

You clearly can't recall a significant number of cases where it the right's price did not drop to the strike price. Galliford Try issued a rights notice this week ... 950 before the RI ... RI at 568 at a 1:3 ratio ... share price after RI ... let's see ... is it going to be 568 ... no, looks like 835p ... Um ... maybe ... Mike's got it wrong ... let's find someone else who can do maths ... oh, here he is ... let's have a look at this guy's post, he's called Londoner7 ... http://www.lse.co.uk/member-info.asp?nick=londoner7 and his post is GFRD RE: 568 pence Tue 17:37 Before the market opens, he uses basic maths, to predict that the share price will be 853 at open and the rights to be 285 per share ... let's see what they 'closed at' after a day's trading ... 865.5/280 ... not a bad prediction after a day's trading me thinks. I can't see GFRD ... 'drifting' down to 568p in the next 2-weeks against a level market. Of course if the whole FTSE100 + FTSE250 where to go down by 34% then it would go down to 568p ... full stop ... but then again if the whole of the market went down by 34% I don't think we'd be discussing rights issues do you? Mike

Conflict of interest or what? We have SLA shares from when we were 'gifted' them in the privatisation ... because we had a minimal mortgage guarantee policy with them ... We have PHNX shares from a while back in our ISA's ... And Scottish Widows (now owned by Lloyds) gave us our buy-to-let mortgage at a stupidly low rate tied to BoE base rate ... now sadly coming to an end. The Scottish Widows mortgage is becoming history as I type ... PHNX I still like as a long-term income investment ... SLA seems to now be loosing its way a little. But overall I'm happy ... I'll hold the gifted shares in SLA until I get some cash/shares in/from PHNX ... the rights in PHNX I'll almost certainly take up at least for the medium term ... the mortgage is a bit of a bummer, but where can you find 0.5% over BoE for the next 10 years these days? Mike

All brokers have their own/different systems for processing the incoming dividends into your accounts. Some of these systems produce better (more prompt) payments than others. If you are reinvesting into the same companies shares (ie RDSB dividend is use to buy RDSB shares) then this may or may not be an issue. Generally though ... the market makers are no fools and they know that a substantial amount of the dividend will end up reinvested in RDSB, either automatically or by habitual reinvestors. So, would you believe it, on payment day, and the next 2-3 days, they increase their price/spread to maximise their profit. Bit like the price of sprouts always goes up as Christmas approaches. So, don't sweat over a day or two ... take the wiser approach and hold the cash for a while ... then invest either in a different, non-time shifted/manipulated share, or wait for a localised dip and buy back in. Set a limit order to do the work for you ... choose the price from a day or two before the payment date ... you'll get it, but it might take a week or so. Best of all ... get yourself a broker that a) handles your dividends well, and b) operates a 'bulk-trade' reinvestment service at super low rates ... (look at iWeb). Mike

Sorry for the late posting but just catching up on last week ... You're right about the VAT question ... no nation state in the EU is allowed to charge less than the set rate for VAT. They can charge more if they wish, but not less. In the UK we're stuck with a 5% VAT rate on energy bills because of this ruling. Following BrExit, after some transitional arrangements and period of time blah, blah, we should get control again of what we do. Let us hope, and pray (for the religous amongst us) that we make good and sensible use of the opportunity. Mike

Just a word of caution ... as the election date approachs for what to do with your rights as regards pay for or sell etc and all the variants there in ... beware ... not doing anything. If you don't do anything, that is let your rights 'lapse' then your rights will drop into a kind of default, limbo state where it is almost 100% certain that you won't get as much as if you'd dealt with the matter yourself before the deadline. The official line is that the company will take ownership of the shares, sell them in the market place at some time, deduct dealing and administrative costs and forward the money (less the 568p per share) to you in due course. You will have no control over the price obtained, the costs incurred or the timescales. Overall ... letting your rights lapse is not a sensible option ... whatever your decision is, make it and implement it! Mike

I'm sorry that you've had a rough time of it in the share market. It's not a place for the feint hearted and over the years I too have lost substantial amounts ... but I've also gained and overall it's been a lot better than leaving it in a bank account. I think your story contains a couple of points which suggest that as you think perhaps you shouldn't have got involved in this game. Firstly buying shares because someone else recommends them rather than based on your own research. You wouldn't buy a house based on what the estate agent said without a detailed look at what you were getting and a healthy dose of scepticism. The same holds for shares you have to do a lot of work to reduce the odds of making a loss and even then you'll still make mistakes -- hopefully not so many. Investing money that you couldn't afford to lose ... shares are really for the long term and you need to be invested in the right shares for a long time to get the rewards, anything else is really just horse racing with a different name. Your experience has been a painful one I suppose its time to take stock and decide what to do. Either get out and stay out or learn the detail before you invest further. What ever you choose ... good luck ... I hope it works out for you. Mike

Nope ... you really have to do the maths and the devil, as always, is in the detail ... suppose the RI strike price was �1.75 ... no let's make it �1.00! Your statement is that the market share price is going to go down to that level ... umm ... let's have a look what have we missed ... oh, the ratio ... how many shares can you buy at the bargain price of �1.00 for your holding. Let's suppose that's 1 for 100 ... that means for every 100 shares I own I get the 'right' to buy a new share for �1 .... that equates to a real price shift of 1p. That's a lot different from the �1'ish that your idea suggests ... and my way of doing the maths has the benefit of countless right's issues over the last 20-30 years. Wait until the details are announced, then do the maths and come back and post any opinion you like ... Mike

For normal trades the market makers have to post the data within 3-5 minutes ... for larger trades they are allowed to delay the posting if they choose to prevent the market from shifting before they have chance to either buy or sell shares to balance their position again. The larger the trade the longer the delay they are allowed. For a trade of 9m shares they could easily post the trade 2-3 days after it actually happened. If they are delaying the posting then they will often post it out of hours. So it could be someone or some fund that literally bought or sold 10% of the companies equity ... and remember that the price that is posted, which was the price of the deal, may easily be wrongly interpreted as a buy/sell. It's not likely that someone would buy/sell 10% of the equity on the open market in one go. So the other alternative is that one ii has transferred a large holding to another ii by agreement. The transaction then has to go through the market's books even though the deal was done 'off-market'. Best watch for a matching RNS that shows a change in holdings. Mike