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I know we are all hurting with losses on this one, but perhaps if people can think long term a turnaround will prove far more lucrative than any takeover. It wasn't that long ago profits were being generated and without massive spending on new branches, a shift to digital etc the rewards could be significant.
Interesting that the FTSE 100 is now lower than it was in December 1999. Not much progress maybe, but for me I see this as now full of opportunities for long term investors happy to take dividends and see investing a long term 10 year plus game and not a frenzied get rich quick approach. It will almost certainly go lower, but the coronavirus will have a short term economic impact and the world will move on and grow again.
This is why I still see value in Metro, what they are doing still has a place in the modern world and now we have got rid of the excesses of Vernon Hill it can turn a profit again with SLOW growth and controlled spending. Customer numbers are growing, increase digital and online presence, only open branches where there is a clear economic case to do so and things can look a lot better.
Interesting to see on the 19th one of the shorts increased and another decreased. In reality no one seems to have a clue so Friday will prove interesting. I'm not expecting anything major either way and expect trading to continue at the 200 +/- 10% as it has done for the last few months. I still believe in the long term success of this bank from the levels we are at, a bit of patience is required. See where we are in a year or 2.
I'm with Matlot on this. Although I am down quite a bit on this (average about 250) I still think given time this will come good unless the directors are aware of something we are not? Most people on here seem to be after a quick buck and are not interested in the basic principles of investing in that 1. Spread your risk across a wide basket of shares and 2. Patience and time are required. If dogger is not a shorter then quite clearly he's a gambler rather than an investor and may as well just go to the casino.
Short term it is a casino, I agree but as Ratknapp says lets see where we are in 6 months, a year, 2 years etc. You will never get your timing exactly right but eventually IF the directors can sort this out the stock value will increase. I'm convinced there are still some big sellers out there unwinding positions and this is not just down to shorts. Time will tell whether they are right to be selling now or not.
"Metro Bank recorded a £2.2 million in its third quarter,"
A £2.2 million what?
"helping total deposits to rise from £528 million to £14.2 billion over in the three months to September 30."
Really, in 1 qtr?
Interesting article but do they not proof read these things?
Interesting that they all increase just a little and days apart. Enough to keep the price down. Not sure what they know that we don't. Anyway, I'm holding for the long term as I still think this will come good in the end, just wish my timing had been a little better.
Zccax77 - My only aim in investing is to get it right more often than I get it wrong. I definitely make plenty of mistakes and I'm hoping this isn't one of them (currently on paper it certainly is!) but I'm not over-invested. It would hurt if this did go under but it's money I can afford to lose and I think the risk/reward looks good to me. Personally I'll ride it out for 5 years or more unless I'm showing a strong profit earlier. It will take time for this to turn but it will imo.
My mother in law had some bad financial advice and had way too much invested in RBS although over the years leading up to the crash she would have done alright. I'm certainly not making the same mistake here.
This is why I really can not get my head around this one. The BOD have screwed up with the bond issue, the classification of loans etc which is incredibly poor but the underlying business model looks good, there is no desperate financial crisis here that can't be resolved. First thing we need is a few changes in the management team.
Shorts target companies that have messed up and at the end of the day Metro have certainly done that, but with a decent management team this business has the potential to be very profitable. The fact I like is that after a while 80 percent of the cost of branches is covered by safety deposit boxes. Metro need to expand more slowly, target only big cities, keep costs down and away you go...
The differences between this and Northern Rock are massive, the only problem here is loss of confidence in the board, external economic conditions (Brexit) and lack of communication from the bod. The only justification I can see for the share price being this low is if there is something horrible that has not been disclosed and is being covered up which I doubt but concede is a possibility.
I have a feeling this will be taken private as it looks to me like the management have done everything they can to destroy the value of this company, either that or they are the most incompetent management team I have ever seen. Strategy is to let the price fall then pick it up cheap and put into private hands.