Member Info for squadraazzura

"Pets also said on Wednesday that changes to National Insurance contributions and minimum wage announced in last month's Budget are expected to increase costs by £18m in FY26."

This problem is flagged up by every retailer.

The is the result of the "friend of the working people" - The labour party, or the best friend of higher taxes.

Who cannot raise taxes on the back of working people ? How easy it is !

But creating jobs to help the economy is more difficult ...

Best Defensive to own

With all geopolitical issues in Europe/Russia, the Middle East and China/Taiwan,it is better to accumulate stocks such as FRES as they are the best defensive stocks on offer.

FRES is the only decent one with location far from trouble compared to say CEY etc.

The party of the working people has been contacted by retailers for the great help they provided for the economy.

hTTps://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/80-retailers-write-to-chancellor-over-budget/

The only positive outcome that will be accepted by the market is if the CEO - who is also the chairman - now holding 3 positions (+ COO) apologises and resign.

Sacking the COO did not please the market obviously when one looks at the SP reaction.

If the man who should run the operations is kicked out, who should then replace him to run the businesses ?

This is the apparent reply: "This change reduces the length of reporting lines and ensures closer proximity of the CEO to the businesses."

In other words, the CEO will also be the COO. Is this possible ? I doubt it.

IMO the market believes the link between the CEO and the businesses is now broken.

They should think about the consequences before doing anything.

A scapegoat is not the response to solving problems.

Agree 100% !

Sacking the COO did not please the market obviously when one looks at the SP reaction.

If the man who should run the operations is kicked out, who should then replace him to run the business ?

This is the apparent reply: "This change reduces the length of reporting lines and ensures closer proximity of the CEO to the businesses."

In other words, the CEO will also be the COO. Is this possible ? I doubt it.

IMO the market believes the link between the CEO and the businesses is now broken.

They should think about the consequences before doing anything.

A scapegoat is not the response to solving problems.

Labour - the friend of working people - reviving inflation by pushing supermarkets and businesses to increase prices and sacking the very working people.

So if inflation is reversing its downtrend, interest rates on mortgages will be higher and "the working people" won't afford mortgages.

As I said before the extend of damage labour is causing is just the tip of the iceberg.

hTTps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-20/uk-inflation-climbs-more-than-forecast-to-2-3-on-energy-costs

I hope you are right as I have invested on here too.

But I am starting to doubt about the way they have handled this after the TU.

IMO once they flagged up the issues, they should have done a proper and complete investigation with final conclusions once for all.

At the moment they release bits of negatives at updates - sinking further the SP.

If they keep digging more skeletons, they will definitely harm the share price and share buy back won't have any effet at all.

Investors cannot remain sitting on a time bomb so they won't have any confidence in the way managment have handled the issues so far.

I am seriously starting to doublt about the management professionalism.

The market hates uncertainty.

What are the repercussions from China ?

Is AZN going to be involved in Chinese courts ?

Possible big fine if breaches are serious ?

All these uncertainties will continue to weigh on the share price untill all is clarified.

Thanks a lot Adem.

In any case, all willbe revealed next Monday.

Intersting to see their future projections and outlook.

IMO this is a top quality company to hold for the medium to long term.

Real investors do not look at transient blips within a few months but rather to growth for 2 - 5 years minimum.

In the past VTY had decent dividends too - the last one of 32p was paid on 1 June 2023.

In 2022 the total dividend was 63p.

I hope these will be restored very soon too in addition to continuing share buy back.

Sorry, the last paid dividend of 32p was on 1 June 2023, not 2021.

They paid decent dividends up to 2021.

In their last statement, they mentioned "capital distribution(S) which may possibly imply restoring dividend ?

"... our medium-term target of £800m adjusted operating profit, and £1 billion of capital distributions to shareholders."

I think this is a one off otherwise they would not have stated:

"The estimated one-off impact of adjusting for the revised development cost assumptions reduces the Board's expectations for adjusted profit before tax ... As a result, the Board now expects Group adjusted profit before tax in FY24 to be c. £350m."

This has since punished VTY by a sp drop of more than 37%.

IMO this is overdone and the stock is now oversold.

To be frank I am very surprised by an early TU, just out of the blue !

The tone of the update coupled with a share buy back - to support EPS - means to me that they will be struggling during 2025.

So my conclusion is there is the possibility the share price will be heading towards £5 which will make a floor for recovery.

This could take some time though but the sp will struggle throughout.

So a downgrade is imminent and I am definitely out of this stock for a while.

Possibility of re-instating the dividend soon ?

That will be a big plus if flagged up in their next TU.

Abdn lost more than 10% of its share value as fund outflow rises.

So they have to get a bit of cash by selling part of their portfolio at any price.

Anyone who doesn't pay tax, sleeps at 3.00am everyday, wakesup at 3.00 pm then goes to collect his "earnings" at the post office is a working chum.