Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African Resources, on delivering sector-leading returns for shareholders. Watch the video here.
When your sales and purchases are governed by the Model Code you have very limited trading windows, and if you need liquidity for a reason then you have to use the window, even though you may like to hold a little longer.
Bankers are greedy (cliché I know!) and will want to rinse every penny out of their bonus pot. They also have ego's so will want to be the richest people in the graveyard! So, I see the link to the share price as good for shareholders. It's also not an overly ambitious target or overly weighted metric in their bonus scheme IMHO.
It's also arguably good for employees in their ShareSave scheme(s), who will be incentivised to 'unlock' the Boss's extra bonus, and be rewarded themselves on maturing schemes.
The challenge, as always, is keeping the momentum going into the following year.
Shares in issues puts the cost of the dividend at a whisker over £1bn
If they can buy back 4bn shares they've done well and the share price will have continued to underperform. I'm expecting (hoping!) closer to 3/3.5bn shares, which still represents great value, and a rising tide on the share price.
Lloyds Banking Group has acquired vehicle leasing company Tusker for £300 million.
Tusker, which had a risk fleet of 20,976 cars and vans, according to last year’s FN50, is a specialist in salary sacrifice schemes for electric vehicles (EVs) and ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs).
The vehicle leasing company launched its first salary sacrifice scheme for cars in 2008. Today, it has some 1,300 customers running about 23,000 vehicles of which 60% are EVs, with future orders set to increase that to 77%.
Its customer base, which consists of SMEs, large and mid-size corporates as well as public sector organisations, has grown tenfold in the past 10 years.
Tusker’s CEO, Paul Gilshan (pictured), said: “Lloyds Banking Group are the obvious choice to take Tusker to the next phase of our growth and I am delighted that we are joining the Lloyds family.
“Not only do we have aligned strategic goals on our commitment to net zero and excellent service, but with their strong financial support we can grow our electric fleet faster by offering exceptional value to our customers, drivers and partners.”
Lloyds Banking Group has confirmed that Tusker will remain as a standalone salary sacrifice business, operating alongside Lex Autolease, the UK's largest leasing company, which has a risk fleet of 282,720 cars and vans.
Based in Watford, Tusker employs more than 250 staff. Lloyds Banking Group said that there are no planned redundancies as a result of today’s announcement. It also confirmed that the existing Tusker management team will remain in place.
Currently, Lloyds Banking Group finances or leases more than one million cars and vans on UK roads through Lex Autolease and its Black Horse division, including one in 10 new electric cars.
Nick Williams, managing director transport at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “As part of our 2022 strategy, we outlined our ambitions to grow our participation in vehicle leasing and the acquisition of Tusker is a key part of delivering on this with a net-zero focus, at a time when the transition to sustainable methods of transport is a high priority for both our business clients and retail customers.
“Alongside our Lex Autolease business, this acquisition allows Lloyds Banking Group to offer our products and services across a wider section of businesses and enterprises, enabling them to provide competitive benefits packages while helping them transition to net-zero.”
The acquisition of Tusker, said Lloyds, will support its ambition to help Britain build a more sustainable society and achieve its net zero emission targets by 2050 or sooner.
I am a long term hold with a 50p average, and have had dividends along the way too. I hold what I need and could top up if they dive, but am happy with a 5 year personal strategy that suits me, as I don't have a need for the money. I no longer dabble in other shares.
I think the results were fair and right for the current market. Positive to be prudent with risks, as provision can always be released.
Dividend is always good, and I tend to spend it (and put more into pension from salary to get the tax and NI gain) rather than re-invest.
Buy-back is a win-win. If the share price falls, then a lot of shares get cancelled (WAY more than get issued for ShareSave etc.) and if they increase the share price (one can hope!), the value of my holding goes up.
IMHO the share is undervalued, but the market decides the value and it is what it is.
Overall, I'm happy and will continue to hold and ride out any dips, and capitalise on any big ones.
Thanks MVarawa, I don't disagree. - For clarity, Lex Autolease is B2B and this is on a lot of Corporate agendas. They use their banking relationships to leverage into car leasing, then 'land and expand' their offering to enhance margins.
Don't forget LBG is the largest car leasing player in the market through subsidiary Lex Autolease, so this gives them a strong foothold in the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market which is predicted to be a big growth market as people (especially GenZ) move from ownership to usership and the connected car becomes increasingly more sophisticated.
Workers Councils have a lot of Power in Germany, and are a nightmare to deal with. They also have very favourable redundancy packages. I din't realise how lax the UK employment laws are until I had to deal with employees in Germany. Mind you, they have great productivity......
I day trade now and then, but it's in the full knowledge of the risk. Lloyds has been kind to me (mostly), but I've been burned too. Being disciplined, and not greedy is hard. I cash out, and I also build up my holding as a long term dividend punt.
I also have a balanced portfolio of other assets, and never trade more than I can afford. currently I have a lot in cash, a little gold, and much hope that the markets come good in the long term. I never put my livelihood at risk; no matter how good the opportunity.
Extract from RNS:-
"......William Chalmers retained all the Shares apart from 322,702 Shares which were sold at a price of 41.825 pence per Share to meet income tax and National Insurance Contributions."
A drop in the ocean, but can't have been fun selling at that price. I guess we all have bills to pay.
89m shares bought back and cancelled today. I doubt the volume of shares to be be cancelled in this buy back was ever envisaged likely - good for long term holders (for clarity I hold 250k shares and I am personally happy with the ride over the years - though it's always encouraging to see a bit of green).