Member Info for Spondy

The Board intends to return more to shareholders over 2024-27[5], through a combination of dividends and buybacks, with 5% DPS growth to FY24 and a first share buyback of £200m in 2024, followed by 2% DPS growth per annum out to FY27 and further similar buybacks[6]

[5] Compared to returns that would result from maintaining the current 5% per annum dividend growth rate over this period

The divi was already growing at 5%. Now from 2025 - 2027 they are going to return more to shareholders by 2% DPS growth.

Any dividend growth will see more returned to shareholders, 1%, 2%, etc. but at less than 5% will be at a slower rate.

They talk about DPS and not the dividend pot. If buying back £200m, approximately 1.5% of shares, then there will be a corresponding increase of just over 1.5% in the dividend anyway and won't need much extra cash to bring this up to 2%.

Is the 'first share buyback of £200m in 2024' the first for LGEN or the first of many in 2024? What will be the frequency of the buybacks?

Note: at 08:15 LGEN is down 3.5% and FTSE 100 up 0.56%

Yes, I know that and it's in my post "The timetable for the Court Meeting and General Meeting shows they are to be held on the afternoon of 18th June 2024".

I'm asking about the Court Hearing.

From the 23rd May 202 7:00 am RNS Scheme of arrangement

"The hearing of the Court to sanction the Scheme is currently expected to be held in the third or fourth quarter of 2024, subject to the prior satisfaction or waiver of the other Conditions set out in the Scheme Document."

The timetable for the Court Meeting and General Meeting shows they are to be held on the afternoon of 18th June 2024. The Court Hearing date isn't set yet and the comment says "As soon as reasonably practicable after the satisfaction or waiver of Conditions 3(a) to 3(g) (set out in Part A of Part III(Conditions to and further terms of the Acquisition and the Scheme) of the Scheme Document ("D")(4)

All other dates follow on from the 'D' date; D+1, D+2 etc. as look as though this will be concluded on D+3.

Curious as to what the conditions are and to get an idea of how long the may take to be satisfied I looked in the Recommended Cash Offer of 26th April 2024 for; 3(a) to 3(g) (set out in Part A of Part III(Conditions to and further terms of the Acquisition and the Scheme) of the Scheme Document but can find them.

There is section 3 General Conditions which goes up to 3.18 but no 3(a) to 3(g).

I've skimmed but not read all of section 3.

My question goes out to those with knowledge or experience of these matters and is how long does it take to get the Court Hearing after approval at the General Meeting?

Could this complete in June or are we like they say looking at third or fourth quarter and it dragging on until December?

The Havieron Quarterly Update is imminent. The last one was 25th January 2024.

Ok, thanks skier.

If you've seen the DEC Share Price page here on LSE you can't have missed the symmetry in the 3 month share price chart.

Question to the chartists: Is the symmetrical pattern significant and what does it mean?

@tom111

https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:DEC

DIVERSIFIED ENERGY COMPANY PLC (DEC)

15.94 +0.76 (+5.01%)

Last Trade Time: 01/04/2024 13:14:00

The letter of 18th December 2023 from the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce addressed to Rusty Hutson of Diversified Energy Company set out a detailed request for information and documents to be submitted by January 3, 2024.

I've been looking on https://energycommerce.house.gov/ and can't find the letter of 18th December or a reply.

Does anyone know whether the information was supplied and whether it will be publically available?

"the total number of ordinary shares of 1p each in the capital of the Company in issue as at 29 December 2023 is 47,923,726"

The consolidation at 1:20 cancelled the 1p shares and replaced them with 20p shares. The 'Transaction in Own Shares' RNSs since consolidation such as this one from 27th December say "Following the cancellation of Shares, Diversified will have 47,923,726 ordinary shares of 20 pence each in issue and no ordinary shares are held in treasury."

This is my observation and one for the pedants but it makes me wonder who writes these RNSs and why they don't know the denomination of the shares.

Finally, from the 4th December RNS Result of General Meeting;

Issue of one ordinary share and admission of Ordinary Shares in Conjunction with Share Consolidation and Total Voting Rights

In conjunction with the consolidation of the Company's existing shares, the Company has today allotted and issued one new ordinary share of £0.01 credited as fully paid up by way of capitalisation of its distributable reserves to round up holdings to a number, which following Consolidation, leaves a whole number of Ordinary Shares. An application has been made to the Financial Conduct Authority and to the London Stock Exchange for admission of one ordinary share of £0.01 and the 48,223,835 Ordinary Shares of £0.20 each to the premium listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's main market for listed securities ("Admission"). For clarity, this Admission is in replacement of the Company's previously listed 964,476,699 Ordinary Shares of £0.01 each. It is expected that Admission will occur at 8 a.m. on 5 December 2023. The ISIN for the Ordinary Shares following Consolidation is GB00BQHP5P93.

Following Admission, the Company's total issued share capital will consist of 48,223,835 Ordinary Shares of £0.20 each in the Company. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. Therefore, following Admission, the total number of voting rights in the Company will be 48,223,835. This figure may be used by Shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

My broker doesn't trade ASX listed shares. I can't buy only sell and that's through HSBC as an intermediary. I'd like a takeover by US or UK listed miner. Alternatively if the SP hits ~AUD2.5 again I might bail out and buy into another gold miner / producer or ETF / ETC.

I'm slightly concerned about recent moves into Sudan and Tanzania. I appreciate that they need to do something with the cash to grow the company.

Https://seekingalpha.com/article/4651590-diversified-energy-company-headwinds-derivatives-book

Overall, I believe Diversified Energy is trading at a relatively high valuation compared to its competitors in the natural gas producing space. Given their smaller generating footprint and less concentrated assets, as well as their high levels of debt and unique capital structure, I believe DECPF equity is significantly overvalued. Given these risk factors as well as their heavy dependence on the futures market, I rate DECPF shares a SELL rating with a price target of $0.47/share.

Https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/are-diversified-energy-shares-heading-higher-ii529619

If the link is obscured search for 'interactive investor alistair strang' and it's currently his most recent article. Text, no chart, below;

Are Diversified Energy shares heading higher?

Independent analyst Alistair Strang gives his view on the direction of the oil & gas company.

24th October 2023 08:55

by Alistair Strang from Trends and Targets

Diversified Energy Co DEC are oil & gas focused, work in the US, are listed in London and boast a pretty informative website. The chart below shows the share price currently plumbing the depths of lower lows!

There’s a pretty grim argument favouring us mentioning that it’s on a cycle to a potential bottom of just 52p, effectively a return to a price level last seen when the listing commenced in 2017. We’d certainly have some concerns if the share price discovered an excuse to sink below the recent 64p, as this would doubtless herald a final tumble to a hopeful bottom. We cannot confidently calculate anything below 52p, so that alone gives some (slight) hope for a bounce if such a silly-looking drop target materialises.

However, since the share reached the 64p level at the start of this month, there has been some fascinating share price movements, which suggest the share price is currently about to weaken down to 70p, hopefully discovering a trampoline level. Any bounce capable of exceeding 78p calculates with the potential of a lift to 85p with our longer-term secondary, if exceeded, working out at a future 98p. Our argument is based on the big picture already suggesting that 64p should be regarded as a bottom and, despite current grotty market conditions, this should be heading upwards.

One funny thing about our calculation that proposed a future 98p is that this will effectively represent a “higher high”, with the result that closure above such a price level should send a clear signal to hold on and wait, the big picture giving some pretty interesting future potentials, which, to be fair, we will need to revisit if 98p makes an appearance. We are the first to admit that our abilities in this time-machine game are just a little lacking.

Hi Lukee. Thanks for the link. I wouldn't have seen this otherwise.

I've downloaded the audio from YouTube using ytmp3convert.org and will listen this evening.

"As Buffet once said, the stock market is the only shop where buyers head for the exit when a sale is on."

Best thing I've read all day. Love it. Thanks Andy.

Https://trad inge cono mics .com/commodity/natural-gas

Hopefully that URL is obvious. My spaces added.

I've noticed the US Gas Price has gone up 10% this morning from $2.6/MMBtu to $2.9/MMBtu.

The oils are also up about 1%.

Is this trend going to continue over the next week's and months and lift the SP from these low 80s?

@Craigb - Thanks for posting the link. I don't know First Berlin Equity Research. They seem quite confident in their short assessment of the company. Price targets are what they are. Some are never achieved. I'd be out buying the champagne at 180 if that were to happen.

Hi Kevin, the article is paywalled. Could you copy the text and post it here?

Thanks.

Replying to Agricore, post at 09:50 today.

I read this as prior to the conference call at 12:00 BST the results and the powerpoint slides of the presentation will be available on their website. Probably RNS'd at 07:00 BST, or a few minutes after. Nothing more.

What prompted todays SP rise? xd tomorrow, 31st Aug, will there be a ~3p price drop or is something else going to show before the end of the week?

Thanks MH01. This article from 2nd June mentions the diluting cash raise. There was a press story about a cash raising equity issue around that time. Is this article repeating it or the source?

"There is a further factor here – Greatland is working with Australian banks on an issue and listing here to raise up to $A100 million with the float happening in the third quarter of this year."

Probably better if you visit https://tradingeconomics.com/forecast/commodity to see it laid out correctly.

Anyway the forecast for gold is +$100 in 12 months.

It doesn't say how they come up with these figures though. Take them for what they are.