RE: Nigerian oil market15 Oct 2019 23:28
Chris, so I think they are deliberately maintaining a holding of 19% give or take, and their MM trading means they cross the odd threshold and have to declare it. (MMs only have to declare crossing percentage points if they hold over 10%, which is why you don't see this often).
I've seen it with other stocks too with Peel Hunt, so they do invest as well as make markets.
Your question is why, and I don't know. There are two broad possibilities. They could be acting for someone else, accumulating by way of brokering a future deal, or simply holding the shares so that an interested party gets shareholder votes at key points but doesn't have to identify themselves by holding themselves. Or it could be that they simply hold them as an investment for their own interests. Their website obviously gives their own spin on things, but the way they describe themselves is nevertheless interesting and would allow for either of these broad reasons. "Our partnership structure best aligns our interests with those of our clients and stakeholders. We only engage with clients as a house – corporate, sales and research must all agree. This leads to long-term successful client relationships. We call this approach joined-up broking."
I don't know what their reason is, but I'm convinced (a) it's deliberate, and (b) it's medium to long term. As you say, if they'd wanted to trade out of what they took from sheikh, they'd have managed to shake a few percentage points by now if not the lot. It's what they do for a living, and presumably they're good at it.
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