Member Info for MrMath

Got out of GSK at the right time and decided to put some of that money in AAL. Needed something extra in the mining sector.

Got to love the mining shares.

"dead on 1400p some of the shares I sold at £18 on 27th April (pre consolidation)"

I also sold pre-split and consolidation at the £18 mark, but I'm not brave enough to get back in yet. Keeping a close eye on the situation ...

No way I am selling any time soon, and regretting not topping up as I've been search for a new home for my GSK money. I did actually consider these as an option but did not commit. Oh well, at least I saved a shed load by selling GSK at the right time.

The consolidation was 4 for every 5 owned, so you multiply the current price by 4/5 = 0.8 to recover the pre-consolidation price. So about 1,323.40p at the moment.

"What a share ,Astra zenica is going up 1% today and this keeps going down"

Yep, was thinking about buying back in but that's not looking likely anytime soon. If it doesn't turn around soon then my cash will go in another direction, maybe AAL.

Had I not sold just prior to the split, I would be down about 8% on the GSK portion and down about 5% on the HLN portion. So neither doing great but, yes, HLN are doing slightly better.

"An annuity is a way for the industry to rip off the uninformed."

Exactly. The industry preys on some people's need for a sense of security. Actuaries are paid handsomely to ensure the customer is on the wrong end of the deal.

"I decided to ditch my Haleon shares a couple of days back at just under £3.20 and reinvest the proceeds in more GSK."

I'm still keeping an eye on both, although it's far more likely I'll get back into GSK than HLN.

"Sir Dave will receive total fees of £700,000 per annum as Non-Executive Chair of the listed Consumer Healthcare company and will be required to invest an element of his net fees in company shares"

Looks like, at 316.7p, he didn't get the best of prices for his 200,000 worth of shares yesterday. Down well over 13,000 already.

"I sold out of both companies a few months ago"

ULVR has done very well over the last 4 months. I'm now in profit with it, if dividends received are included, even though it dropped like a stone after my purchases! As for GSK, I sold out on the recent highs before the split and put half the money into LGEN and RIO when they hit their recent lows, and that has worked too and I believe it will continue to pay off. I may well be tempted back into GSK with the other half of the cash but am holding fire on HLN.

The shareholder information page you linked states, "The tax base cost apportioned to the GSK plc shares as outlined above should not be affected by the consolidation of GSK plc shares." And this is certainly true.

In their example you would now have, after consolidation, 800 GSK shares with a base cost of £8,184.20 and 1,000 HLN shares with a base cost of £1,815.80. But note that £8,184.20/800 = £10.23, which is very nearly the original cost per share in their example, which is what longterminvestor was saying when he wrote, "the average cost of your new gsk per share should be about the same as the cost per share of your old gsk."

Thanks. Confirms what I thought: that the closing prices are used in the calculations. Probably still a few brokers who are not showing the correct base costs in their clients' accounts.

"iWeb are showing the Haleon shares now and have attributed 17.97560523% of the acquisition cost to Haleon."

Congratulations on the accuracy. Even allowing for rounding errors that is different from the 81:19 split that was quoted by NervousNelly for HL. The situation on exactly which share prices to use seems a bit lawless. After further searches I'm not convinced that it is legislated very well. I've found some evidence to suggest that the companies involved reach an agreement with HMRC before the event. So each situation would be different. However, whether it's opening, closing, mid-prices or whatever the various calculations are unlikely to vary much in practical terms.

"there is no return of capital"

Of course, but the point was about establishing a principle. HMRC are not clear on the matter. If anyone actually manages to find the official legislation then please post a link.

See top of page 2 on this calculation, for example,
https://www.gpe.co.uk/media/2793/return-of-capital-worked-tax-example.pdf

"are you sure its closing rather than opening prices"

Hi John,

Not sure at all!

I'm just assuming it's closing prices at I've seen consolidations where reliable calculations were based on closing prices.

However, even if you look at the advice on government websites it tends to go on about 'market value' without really nailing down what they mean. I suspect this is one of those things where you could talk to HMRC and not get two consistent answers. In practice, it is very unlikely that whatever figures you use will make a significant difference to any tax which may be due, so not worth worrying over.

Apportion the base cost of your original GSK shares as follows:

Original_base_cost x G/(G+H) for the now GSK portion and
Original_base_cost x H/(G+H) for the now Haleon portion,

where G and H are today's respective closing share prices.

PS: Both the formulas that I gave in earlier posts work since one Haleon share was received for each GSK share, so the above calculation is the simplest way to look at it.

PPS: As I write this the sum of the two share prices after the split is 1,715.55 - almost the same as the previous close of 1,719.20.

Hi Clued, I should have been more clear, I meant the closing prices on the first day of trading (18th), not those on the 15th. This is usually the case for consolidations so I was guessing it would be the case here. It seems to me that there is a little less room for manipulation if one uses closing rather than opening prices. If anyone has a link to the appropriate legislation perhaps they could post it.

Apologies, I've just realised that the size of the holding is not included in the calculation I posted!

I believe the original base cost is apportioned as:

Original_base_cost x G/(G+H) for the now GSK portion and
Original_base_cost x H/(G+H) for the now Haleon portion,

where G and H are the respectively, number of GSK shares allocated x closing share price and
number of Haleon shares allocated x closing share price.

This would seem the most reasonable way to do it, however as I have sold out I've not done the research here that I would normally do.