Member Info for Skindle

No implications for the average PI. As I mentioned in a previous post it is all part of a move by the company to re introduce a dividend payment. Here is a repeat of my previous post. It's all about re introducing a dividend payment as promised in the final results. Here is the exert from the final results about this very subject. Dividends Your Board currently intends to continue to use the cash generated by the group to reduce debt further rather than to reinstate dividend payments. However, the significant progress made in recent years in strengthening the group's overall financial position means that steps can now be taken to pave the way for the reinstatement of a dividend in due course. A resolution will therefore be tabled at the upcoming AGM to cancel non-distributable reserves and reduce the nominal value of ordinary shares, subject to the subsequent approval of the courts, to increase the level of distributable reserves. Further details are set out in the notice for that meeting.

....except that after visiting the dentist, the pain goes away and it only costs you a few hundred pounds. With Findel, the pain just keeps getting worse and the loss keeps getting bigger !

I am expecting a mild increase in like for like sales at Express and Kitbag but flat sales at Education. I am hoping that the resolution will be approved at the AGM to cancel non distributable reserves and reduce the nominal value of ordinary shares to clear the way for future dividend payments. I agree with you though ohaire we cannot possibly expect a dividend payment currently with the share price bumping along at this level. What really disappoints me is that a Mrs S Kinney Pritchard was appointed to the board back on the 14th October last year as a non executive director on a remuneration of something like forty to fifty thousand pounds but she has not as yet bought one single share in the business. What does that say about her opinion of the future prospects of Findel given that she is privy to some very sensitive information that we are not. Is her lack of action speaking volumes I wonder ?

Let's hope someone at Findel is grafting hard. The next expected update will be next Thursday 30th July when they hold their annual general meeting. The good news is they probably won't announce further write downs in value at this meeting. The company save those for the half year and full year results in November and June. I must say that this daily diminution in value is quite frustrating, despite what would appear to be greater buying than selling. there has to come a point when we turn a corner and the price climbs to a new and significantly higher level where it can support itself. Where that point is I don't know but all the fundamentals of this business indicate a much greater price than we are currently enduring.

I'd call it a dirty great big ravine !

Please understand that my recent post was purely a hunch and nothing more. I have no evidence to suggest there are any interested parties making efforts to acquire Findel. Indeed the recent share price movement would suggest people selling out rather than trying to buy in. As a trained accountant I have scrutinised the recent final results very carefully and applied the standard formulae associated with the sale of a business of this nature. The lowest price based on those formulae is £362m or £4.18 per share. More than double the value today. That may be pie in the sky but it does represent what I consider to be fair market value. Whether this value will ever be realised is another thing. My concern is that if Tosca do acquire enough shares where an offer to acquire would become obligatory, at what level would they pitch their offer ? Not £4.18 I suspect.

It's all about re introducing a dividend payment as promised in the final results. Here is the exert from the final results about this very subject. Dividends Your Board currently intends to continue to use the cash generated by the group to reduce debt further rather than to reinstate dividend payments. However, the significant progress made in recent years in strengthening the group's overall financial position means that steps can now be taken to pave the way for the reinstatement of a dividend in due course. A resolution will therefore be tabled at the upcoming AGM to cancel non-distributable reserves and reduce the nominal value of ordinary shares, subject to the subsequent approval of the courts, to increase the level of distributable reserves. Further details are set out in the notice for that meeting.

4 Consumer Stocks Set To Post Stellar Returns: Unilever plc, WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC, DFS Furniture PLC And Findel plc By Peter Stephens | Fool.co.uk – 1 hour 45 minutes ago ShareTweet Print Companies: SHS Findel plcWm. Morrison Supermarkets plc RELATED QUOTES Symbol Price Change DFS.L 269.25 -1.25 FDL.L 201.06 +0.06 MRW.L 166.30 -1.10 ULVR.L 2,780.00 +3.00 UL 42.55 -0.16 Image: Unilever plc. Fair Use. Most consumer goods companies fall into one of two camps: cyclical or defensive. The former, of course, indicates that the goods that the company sells are either not necessary or are a luxury purchase which can be avoided during challenging economic periods. The latter, meanwhile, are day-to-day items which are required and people could not do without. Clearly, companies focused on necessity products such as food and clothing are likely to offer more stable financial performance than their cyclical peers. However, at the same time, cyclical companies can offer more upside in the long run - as long as you are able to stomach above-average volatility. Therefore, a mix of the two can prove to be a prudent and logical way forward for Foolish investors. Cyclicals With the UK economy continuing to go from strength to strength, cyclical consumer goods companies such as furniture seller, DFS (LSE: DFS), and Express Gifts owner, Findel (LSE: FDL), are on the up. Both companies are forecast to increase their earnings at a rapid rate, with DFS's bottom line set to rise by 16% next year and Findel's by as much as 21% in the current year. Clearly, such strong growth rates could act as positive catalysts on the share prices of the two companies, since they are at least double the growth rate of the wider index. Despite this, both DFS and Findel trade on low valuation multiples, which indicate that they offer wide margins of safety. This appears to swing the risk/reward ratio in the investor's favour, with DFS having a price to earnings growth (PEG) ratio of just 0.8 and Findel's being even lower at 0.4. As such, and while they are cyclical businesses, they appear to be worth buying at the present time.

Wish I could share your optimism. With the share price in reverse gear one can only fear for the worst, not the best.

http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/253470/stockwatch%3A-follow-hedgie-share?context=LSE:FDL

You talk in riddles Nighthawk, not actually sure what you are trying to say. With volumes as low as the last three of four days, this does not demonstrate to me that we have a number of different interested parties. My hope is that Tosca themselves with their vast contacts can introduce the company to an institution who recognises the potential. Let's be honest, the figures are excellent aside from these wretched write downs in brand values that have become a regular feature of the half and full year results.

Prepare for another day of a reducing price on the back of very low volume. It would appear that yesterday more shares were bought than sold yet the price was marked down each time a new trade occurred. If a company has multiple potential suitors as you suggest, then why is the price dropping, surely it should be rising.

With the overhang taken care of by Aberforth, we are now waiting for the next big buyer to push the price higher. Can't see much happening now before the first quarter update later this month.

Can't help thinking that something is being planned, for the following reasons. 1) The company have been making efforts to air its dirty laundry, starting with the pre close trading statement at the end of March, followed by the final results more recently, including telling us about how well Kitbag are doing but that they would still make a loss for a further year. 2) The pre tax profit turned into a loss after writing down the value of Findel Education. The last time the company wrote down the value of one of its brands was in Novemer last year when Kleeneze was written down. This caused a big fall in the share price but as we now know the brand was subsequently sold four months later. 3) Toscafund are an enormously successful operation whose sole objective is to return maximum profit to its investors. Toscafund would not be investing heavily in Findel just to support its share price. They have now raised their stake in the business to just under the level where they would be obliged to take matters to the next level. There are plenty of shares available for them to raise their stake to 30% should they choose to do so but so far they haven't. With their strong position in the business, I wonder whether they may be putting pressure on the board to find that elusive buyer to realise maximum value. 4) Aberforth Partners are also a very successful fund who have just parted with the thick end of £10m of their stake. That tells me that they know something we don't. As I said, just a hunch.

Aberforth Partners, new face, straight in with a 5.44% holding.

Don't know this for certain but if an individual owns 30% of the shares of a company, it is my understanding that this individual is then obliged to make a bid for the remaining 70%. Currently Tosca are up to 28.23%.

N + 1 Singer, Cantor Fitzgerald, Motley Fool and Investors Chronicle are all recommending that you buy shares in Findel. Apart from Tosca, the rest are not listening ! When will the positive sentiment return ? It is clear after today that there is still a massive overhang of shares that need to be sold. Until this is cleared, forward momentum cannot be considered. We need moe positive rhetoric from the company, not these continued jam tomorrow statements.

Yesterday represented about 8.70% of the total number of issued shares changing hands. There is now either a massive overhang or it has been removed completely. It is curious though why with such volume the price hardly moved. If that was Toscafund adding to its holding, that will take them to about 37%. I really hope that it is someone like Sports Direct. Frustrated at not being able to buy Kitbag, it has decided to buy the whole group instead. With that level of stock changing hands there is sure to be an RNS in the short term.

Now ridiculously oversold and undervalued. The final results were excellent except for exceptional items which have become rather unexceptional in the recent past for Findel. Aside from these, two out of three divisions are well in profit and the third is near break even. Core debt has also been reduced by nearly one million pounds a month for the last year. Whatever Tiscafund have planned only a few people know but you can't say they haven't been supportive of the business through its ups and downs. River and Mercantile have reduced their position post results so I think we need a new face to pick up the overhang and take a dignificant position if this downward sentiment is to change to positive.

Is Toscafund intending to take Findel private ? What percentage of shares does one shareholder require before it can enforce this move ?