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I agree with about Shearer i think he is a good addition to the team. What on earth is Hughes going to do with all his HSS shares. I dont think he's sold any thus far. I'm looking forward to listening to HSS stuttering attempts at their rescue package announced this Thursday morning. PS. Did you see that the Competition & Markets Authority are investigating VP's acquisition of Brandon Hire? Perhaps in the spirit of Xmas altruism the CMA are warning them they are paying way over the odds!.
Well I was certainly wide-off-the-mark in misjudging the market reaction yesterday Nohearts. No melodramas or volatility in fact the SP even attempted a brief bullish surge to 58p towards the close before pulling back again. I also would like to see Tosca sell their remaining 8% holding. Would David Shearer resign in that circumstance I wonder? Did you see Tosca also sold a 90% stake in IMO on Friday in an RNS released the same time as Speedy's after close. The Telegraph suggests the sale relates more to Tosca's own internal problems than being company specific. In fact it blames them for holding back the SP and expects it to rise now the Tosca overhang has been cleared. Likewise perhaps Speedy will also respond positively given the identical circumstances.
Chequemate Toscafund released an RNS on Speedy Hire at exactly same time after Friday's close. Similar situation reducing holding from 20% to 8% but done in one fell swoop.No previous sales had been reported. Thats over 60 million shares. I was/am expecting carnage tomorrow over at Speedy but judging by the mood on this thread it seems many of you are glad to be shot of Toscafund. So for me a Speedy shareholder I'm hoping all may not be as dark as it first appears.
I expected this breaking story to create more of a buzz than it has Noheart but apparently not. The market will be flooded by over 90 million shares on Monday (Tosca ditching approx.60 million and Credit Suisse 30 million) so i'm worried the SP might take us on a white-knuckle ride. I'm praying other institutional holders don't follow suit and sell. I don't think that will happen as I've read some pretty disparaging comments about Toscafund and their huge gaffs in the past. I don't think they are that highly regarded within the industry.
Toscafund tonight reveal they have sold the lions share of their 20% stake in Speedy Hire leaving them with 8% holding. It's clear they have conceded defeat in the long fight for a merger with HSS. The HSS survival plan had better be good next week because no knight in shining armour will be coming to its rescue now.
LONDON (Alliance News) - Speedy Hire PLC said on Friday Toscafund Asset Management PLC more than halved its stake in the equipment rental hire company in a transaction on Thursday as Credit Suisse AG also reduced its position the same day. After the transaction, Toscafund held 43.1 million shares which is equivalent to a 8.2% holding in the company. Prior to the transaction, Toscafund had held a 20.0% stake in the firm. Also on Thursday, Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse cut its holding in Speedy Hire below the notifiable threshold after building up a 10.0% stake on Wednesday. Credit Suisse bulked up its stake in Speedy Hire on Wednesday to 10.0% from 7.6% previously through an expansion in its holding of swaps in the company. However, on Thursday it sold down its stake to the point at which it was no longer notifiable. No further details regarding Credit Suisse's holding after the Thursday transaction were disclosed. In mid-November, Speedy Hire hiked its interim dividend more than 50% after reporting half year pretax profit widened 11% to GBP6.0 million from GBP5.4 million the year prior. Shares in Speedy Hire closed 2.6% lower at 56.00 pence on Friday.
The ALNC headline says Credit Suisse has reduced its holding too. But that looks wrong. The RNS released at 16.26 reveals it now owns 10% of Speedy (7.56% previously) amounting to 52.5 million shares. So who is taking up all the aborted stock, Or are we in for a drop on Monday?
Toscafund have reduced their holding from 20% down to 8% in one fell swoop. My god i make that a reduction of at least 63-65 million shares off top of my head. What on earth has happened? Is anybody able to access the contents of the ALNC bulletin released just after 5pm.
Speedy on the acquisition trail with two choice purchases this morning. According to specialist publication Cranes & Access, the addition of 1,620 platforms to Speedy�s fleet, which it estimates at 3,000 units, would take it just above A-Plant in its annual rankings of powered access platform fleets. A-Plant is credited with having 4,500 units. The top three are Nationwide (11,145 units), HSS (9,112) and AFI (6,219).
How come Tosca's Martin Hughes has got his huge investment in HSS so badly wrong? I thought his business acumen was renowned. What if he now tries to save his own skin by using David Shearer inside Speedy Hire to aggressively push for a merger. Would that succeed? Probably not. Owning 20% of Speedy's shares Tosca might just get the additional support of Schroders with 10% but that's the limit. No one else would support this madcap plan, would they?
With £230m of debt HSS should be avoided like a leper's turd. But Toscafund seem hellbent on a merger and It wouldn't surprise me if they were still adding today. What possible benefit can that bring to SDY's shareholders? Perhaps their sleuth at Speedy David Shearer would care to enlighten us all.