Member Info for Slownsteady

Precisely my sentiments. Underwhelming. At least there is - so far - no dramatic price drop.

It's encouraging there hasn't been a bigger fall-off.

Yes, that's Corporate RNS speak for "final stages".

Still a Bargain for them.

Takeover at $35 bn makes it close to £9 in my estimation.

Why the sudden spike in the sp?

Mike, remember the Housebuilders have to double their share price to get anywhere near their previous peaks. So even conservatively, a massive amount of bad news is (over) reflected in their sp.
These are ones to hold beyond this Recession. Timing is not on, someone put it very well recently... it's like a Bus in the Countryside. You miss the bus, you've had it. Arrive, 15 minutes early, because you never know when it'll turn up.
My PSN's are up 24% since I came in. I'll not think of selling until they are 80% - 100% north of here.

I've heard it all now... "I'm selling because there's no news".
I didn't realise the Company was a Public Broadcasting Network.

Mcall says ITV Studios is "Definitely not for sale". Is it her call? Does she not work for the shareholders, rather than the other way around?

Rupans, I think we've had this discussion before. We need to divide by 8 to get the 'old' price? Which makes it 22.5p.
All, for a gramatically better write-up than Checkin's, have a look at the Saga page on HL (the'Research' section).

Value_wise, I like your balanced summary.
I would add that I'm not myself impressed with the current lot. Sutherland's performances at his previous Companies we know about. Bazalgette is extremely underwhelming, and under his Chairmanship and their ceo - whom he has backed to the hilt - ITV has been a disaster zone. It seems to me he is what one might label a "Professional Director".
Saga's Chairman gives me some comfort, as he has considerable 'skin in the game', and will hopefully curtail the b.s these people generate. Or hopefully, replace them with better Managers.

Hello Allenby, I don't think the re-negotiated loan covenants permit dividends until certain conditions are met. We're a long way from there.

"in line with the evolution to a capital-light business model and the stated objective to reduce debt." With additional ships in the pipeline. Do they think we are fools?

Thanks Rupans, that's fast!

Why don't these i.d.i.o.t.s talk in plain English to us normal folk? They sound like a smoother type of MP.

A superb analysis by Emma Powell for the Times' 'Tempus' Column below.

There is also the matter of finding a bank with the heft to raise enough equity to adequately capitalise an enlarged lender. That’s at a time when the cost of capital is rising. That was one complexity to a tie-up with First Abu Dhabi, according to analysts at Barclays. The UAE-based bank has risk-weighted assets of $158 billion, dwarfed by Standard Chartered’s assets of $253 billion.

Nevertheless, investors should take repeated takeover interest as a cue: Standard Chartered is too cheap.

ADVICE Buy
WHY Takeover potential and improving profitability indicate the shares could be undervalued

(Source: The Times)

During the first nine months of last year, the bank recorded a return on tangible equity of 10.1 per cent.
That leaves it generating a return at least in line with its cost of equity, analysts at Shore Capital estimate, which warrants a value of 900p, or roughly 0.9 times the bank’s net tangible assets. Any bidder would need to pay a small premium to clear a deal, the broker reckons, which would value the shares at more than £10.50, about 50 per cent higher than the present price.
Emerging progress
The signs are that Winters’ turnaround efforts may be about to deliver a boost to profitability. The bank’s fortunes are geared towards a reopening of the Chinese economy and the lifting of international travel restrictions could provide a catalyst for profit growth this year as cross-border business recovers.
Short-term hedges taken out in the immediate aftermath of the Ukraine war to help to insulate against interest rate fluctuations have delayed and dampened the full benefit of rate rises to Standard Chartered’s net interest margin, the difference between the rate it pays depositors and the rate at which it lends. But about 60 per cent of those hedges roll off in February, with the remainder maturing in February next year. Analysts at Jefferies think this will increase the bank’s margin to 1.73 per cent by next year, markedly higher than 1.21 per cent in 2021.
Income over last year is expected to have risen by 13 per cent, ahead of a three-year target for compound annual growth between 8 per cent and 10 per cent by 2024. Market volatility and oscillating commodity prices have provided a boost to the financial markets business, increasing demand for energy hedging and trading activity.
Revenue growth is now outpacing that of costs, with the difference standing at a ratio of 5 per cent over the first nine months of last year. StanChart is closing in on its own 2024 target of 60 per cent, but an acquirer with sufficient scale could go further if it can create synergies by stripping out duplicate costs.
A rise in bad debts is the key risk ahead for all banks as recessions loom. For Standard Chartered, a surge in infections in China complicates the reopening story, as does the bank’s exposure to the country’s commercial property sector. Its exposure to the Chinese commercial real estate sector stands at $3.5 billion, or just over 1 per cent of the loan book, roughly half of which is secured lending.
Thus far, group-wide defaults remain benign. Roll forward impairments recorded during the first nine months to the full year and the charge would stand at only 0.18 per cent of the loan book, below a long-running average of between 0.3 per cent and 0.35 per cent.
Some logistical impediments to a takeover remain. The chief hurdle would be clearing regulatory permissions. Then there are the challenges arising from tensions between China and the West. HSBC offers the clearest case study in the difficulties of straddling both sides.

Potential bid shines light on prospects at Standard Chartered
Emma Powell
Tuesday January 10 2023, 12.01am, The Times
Steering Standard Chartered towards better profitability has been beset by self-imposed and wider economic obstacles. Slow progress has embedded a steep discount in the shares against the value of the bank’s own assets and has made the emerging markets-focused lender an inevitable, perennial takeover target.
The emergence of a potential bid from First Abu Dhabi Bank last week has pushed Standard Chartered’s shares to an almost three-year high, but they still look cheap. The United Arab Emirates-based lender walked away after running the rule over the bank, but Standard Chartered remains in play for another suitor.
The FTSE 100 group’s valuation has long trailed both its London-listed peers and Asia-focused rivals. That has invited talk that it is ripe for acquisition, either by a western financial services group seeking to push into emerging markets, or a rival trying to capitalise on the benefits of greater scale. Names including the Melbourne-based ANZ Bank, Scotiabank, of Canada, HSBC and JP Morgan, the former employer of Bill Winters, Standard Chartered’s chief executive, have been linked with the group over the years.
Even after the First Abu Dhabi-induced boost to the group’s market value, the shares still trade at a 33 per cent discount to the bank’s tangible asset value at the end of September last year, more than twice the average for UK-listed peers including Lloyds and Barclays. First Abu Dhabi trades at twice its tangible asset value; banks operating in some of Standard Chartered’s key emerging markets, such as DBS, of Singapore, also trade at weighty premiums.
Cheap shares
StanChart’s paltry valuation can be attributed to an inferior return on tangible equity, a profitability measure. Winters inherited a mess in 2015. Higher-risk lending and large exposures to individual clients resulted in heavy impairments, particularly in a commodities sector in the throes of a downturn, that took years to wash through. The bank also has been forced to take provisions for charges relating to legacy misconduct, which included fines totalling $1.1 billion from American and British regulators in 2019.
Retrenching from riskier lending and back to five core markets — China, Hong Kong, South Korea, India and Singapore — affected income, but resizing the bank’s cost base has taken much longer. The group’s cost-to-income ratio still stood at 63 per cent over the first nine months of last year. (Necessary) efforts to strengthen its regulatory capital levels have further held back returns generated by the market.
Whether Standard Chartered deserves a price tag closer towards the value of its asset base depends on its ability to achieve a key target of generating a return on tangible equity of 10 per cent by 2024 and to sustain double-digit profitability.

That woman needs to go.