Member Info for strictlybricks

Vlad, the post I'm currently writing for the Strictly Bricks blog is about opportunity being like beauty in that it is in the eye of the beholder...

And, within that, I have referenced you, and your very similar investing song sheet to mine, and also that, as I see it, apart from being up for the challenge ~ both in respect of the new analysis opportunities and also fielding the naysayers ~ what you're also doing is looking to share the opportunity which, I imagine, you feel the same way about as me.

By which I mean, you probably feel blessed to have come across it.

But many of the naysayers, rather than either simply accepting you have a different investing strategy to them, or even taking on board your performance percentages, weighing them against their own, and pausing to consider that you might actually have something worthwhile to offer, just throw such negativity at you.

In one case, I recall that one commenter suggested you were an "eastern European sociopath", which made me chuckle, but the comment was quickly taken down so I don't know if you got to see it..?

In Mr Clyde's case, given that he's already suggested he's averaged around 12% a year for the past twenty years ~ which would be less than what you've done, I believe ~ and seeing as he seems quite a high status sort of chap who probably views the likes of you and me as a couple of peasants who just happened to get lucky with investing, perhaps he's more angry than mad (well, mad in another sense, then, perhaps..?) and stuck in a paradigm that's threatening to shift...?

Which is a pity, because if he got off his high horse and calmly & objectively engaged with us, I imagine he'd have some worthwhile thoughts and experience to share and also gain a few takeaway notions in return.

But, as I said, it's in the eye of the beholder, and that's my theme at the moment...

Separately, you're pushing me on this Henry Boot issue, aren't you...?

Let me get this blog post done, then I've got the local feeding of the five thousand to sort for tomorrow (a once a fortnight lockdown contribution for the Vale on my part) and then I'll hopefully get to look at the numbers more.

But don't hold your breath though, as most likely the four year balance sheet progress has already killed it for me as there are easier questions on the investing exam paper... :-)

Strictly

PS.

Vlad, I didn't respond to your other paragraph...

At 55, you're a mere youngster - I'm 69 next month and, yes, this game has been putting bread on the table for me for the past twenty years and apart from a bit of dividend income as a residue of past involvement in business counselling work after I sold my business and before I got into this game, it's been my sole income.

This is a more civilised place to hold an investing conversation than the DT online IMO as my impression is that whatever you think of the calibre of some of the comments here, most people here are investing in the companies they talk about and there's a fair amount of keenness to learn and also to help & inform others and, apart from the odd idiot, everyone's on the same side more or less even if there does seem to be a predominantly day trader mindset on some of the share chats.

But it's also fair to say that it has been through one or two purple patches for the calibre of discussion and right now it seems rather thin so I've got far more going on in terms of dialogue with our blog and one or two of your DT fan club have joined it recently, having firstly sidled over to here to the LSE BWY chat since you and I started exchanging views there and between us perhaps digging into it all in a bit more detail than the DT readership was maybe used to given a common penchant there for throw-away one liners, petty rivalries, put downs, etc...

And also, you're right.... operating with an inner compass is the way to go.... allowing yourself to be affected by put downs on the one hand or smoke being blown up your posterior on the other ain't exactly a recipe for an equanimous life...

Strictly

Vlad, you'll end up giving me an identity crisis seeing as I'm Strictly on here... :-)

I have held Henry Boot shares in the past, but not for around ten years...

It's a hybrid, half sheep, half goat (like Galliford used to be..... I'm embarrassed to own up that I've held their shares in the past too, but fortunately came out of them at a profit back in 2013 when they looked like they actually knew what they were doing and were priced highly accordingly.... so I got away with that one...) and, as such, I haven't really paid attention to them for years.

As it's you, I just took a very quick butcher's and the number that jumped out at me was only 36% BVPS progress in four years compared to Bellway 59% and Redrow 64% and so isn't much better than Inland at 30% which I can buy for 0.7 PBV.

At this time of night I haven't worked out an accurate BVPS for Boot and their progress seems to have stalled for the past couple of years but they might be worth a bit more time spent..?

BTW, I did also reply to you on the DT Questor Double your Money article thread.

Strictly (not Gunga here!)

Vlad,

You may well be right, though I was surprised that, during a process of several back & forth comments, he did come forth with some numbers and seemed to temporarily forget that his job is to blow holes in our shared investing perspective ~ largely, probably, for the amusement of others.

But I do feel it's mostly a bit of a lost opportunity that he enjoys sniping at you and that seems to get in the way his taking an engaged viewpoint.

While typing this it's just occurred to me.... he seems like the investing world equivalent of your local builder whom you've mentioned who doesn't think much of your DIY skills...

It's all very well taking the p.ss, but a jaundiced view can obscure objectivity, and the sum is often greater than the parts, or sheeps' heads might be a more appropriate metaphor..?

Strictly

"Gunga - what is your view on M&G..?"

Vlad, I'm afraid I'm likely to let you down here as a company like M&G is so far out of the zone for me that I don't have a view to express on it in any event let alone on a forum like this....

It's back to this sheep & goats issue we've discussed elsewhere previously....

As I've said before, I found my flock back in 2003 and they can be easily identified as Strictly Bricks sheep by the fact that in place of warm woolly coats they have nice comfortable land banks upon which they build houses.

Nothing else will do for me.

Only four are in the frame right now, they are Redrow, Crest, Inland and our mutual old pal Bellway.

Crest have, IMO, currently become rather seriously over-priced right now - and I blame Sid & Doris for that, as I reckon they don't pay anywhere near enough attention to that cheeky little word "adjusted" that tends to appear prominently in trading updates issued by Crest in recent years.

And even being spread across the other three right now has proved unwise thus far this year.... I have a fair amount of Inland at the moment whereas my pal, wisely with the benefit of hindsight, has zilch.

Within the Strictly Bricks blog we have an annual investing competition called "Strictly Wacky Races" (and, before you ask, I'm Prof Pat Pending).

My pal, who followed me into this game about twenty years ago (and in SWR, he's represented by the Ant Hill Mob.... and there are others who read LSE BWY who are also engaged in this friendly but fiercely fought fixture) is ahead of everyone by a fair margin right now, and all he's done that I haven't been so successful at thus far this year (though the Fat Lady has been known to come to my rescue in the past) is essentially bob around between just Bellway and Redrow pursuing perceived best value.

And that has been sufficient to put him on 17.7% for the year to date, against my humble 8.5%, which is not only half his it's also a tad embarrassing.

I'm telling you this seemingly pointless & irrelevant story to try to make the point that the few house builders we have to play with are enough.

As we've previously discussed, it's been sufficient for us to return just over an average of 20% a year these past 21 years and, for such a seemingly sound game, I'm not looking for more than that and just to be able to continue at that sort of rate ~ if that proves possible ~ is nothing short of splendid.

You might have picked up on a recent extended conversation with your pal Mr Clyde in a Telegraph chat recently....?

He strikes me as being pretty switched on, but perhaps it's a pity ~ for him at any rate ~ that he's so dismissive of what you bring to the discussion.

By which I mean, after some pushing from me, he estimated his return over the past 20 years at around 12% a year.

Which only gives a fifth of the gains of 20% a year...

None so blind, and all that...

Strictly

UK,

Well, call me an old cynic, but on the day that Bovis announced a shedding of 180p of book value per share for the year, it was probably the least he could do.....?

Time will, no doubt, tell... but probably not just yet... there's a nice carrot being waved in the form of a dividend... that usually does the trick for a while, as can be evidenced in the various LSE chats....

I mean, for example, Persimmon have had to pay out pretty much all their earnings over the past few years to keep their div yield up as their PBV is so high (their tangible book value per share has hardly progressed since 2017 either), but the upshot for last year, based on reality check EPS of 160p, would mean a total shareholder return for Persimmon of 6%.

I'd be happy to debate the numbers on either of these companies if you think they're wrong, but that's how I see it, and so Persimmon are another share I don't hold despite their awesome return on equity.

But to, once more, put the numbers on it for Bovis rather than just to be taking any notice of the gesture made by the boss's share buy today, the 180p per share of value shed over the past 12 months represents 21% of tangible book value per share as it stood a year previously.

I regard that as rather eye-watering...

By sharp contrast, whatever the management of Redrow may or may not be up to with their personal shareholdings (and I just looked at that and I think you're referring to John Tutte's sales? And he's retiring anyway, so maybe he needs the dosh for some spring bedding plants, or whatever..?), they have added 9% to the book value as it stood just six months ago.

To be frank, I don't pay much regard to the buys and sells of directors of listed companies... it seems to me that they don't necessarily have the same reasons & motivations for doing so as ordinary investors, and, from what I can tell, they're not necessarily any more prescient than ordinary investors in terms of where the price might be headed in the short or medium term.

Personally, I only invest based on perceived best value.

In respect of trying to call the short term movement of share prices, I recognise that I'm up against a complete nutter called Mr Market and I'm really not up for trying to take him on as I'm far too much of an investing wuss.

I remain fully invested as a matter of normal procedure, barring a perceived iceberg ahead as with this time last year, and, other than that, if I want some cash out, I try to avoid times when Mr Market is having a bad hair day...

Strictly

2227

You may well be right....?

Bovis's future may well be bright...?

Without a crystal ball, I don't know, though I am mindful that the new management is ex-Galliford - another company that's hardly covered itself in glory in recent times....

As I'd said, and I wasn't trying to be facetious, I guess most people are either looking at numbers differently to me, or looking at different numbers...

But rear-view-mirror-investing has served me well enough for more than two decades, and I reckon I'm too long in the tooth to be likely to change now...?

Bovis is a company that I keep an eye on and, on the whole everything has its price.... but I reckon Bovis would have to halve in price relative to the other builders for me to seriously consider it as an investment prospect.

Each to his own, though, of course...

Strictly

Interesting to note from today's results that Bovis's tangible book value per share has virtually stood still for the past six years (well, to be precise, it's gone up by just 0.6% from 655p to 659p over that time) while Redrow's tangible book value per share over the same time scale has gone up by nearly 140%, from 211p to 502p.

Take it back 10 years, and the gap's even bigger.... 23% BVPS gain for Bovis, over 230% BVPS gain for Redrow.

Yet one is currently required to buy Bovis at the princely rate of 1.38 PBV compared to only having to buy at 1.15 PBV for Redrow....

It is quite surprising to me how much people are prepared to pay for such stunning under-performance....

Obviously, if someone has been successfully day trading in Bovis shares then that's one thing, but, for a long term buy & hold share going back, there's only one word to describe it...

Nightmare.

I haven't got the relevant numbers to hand going back to 2010, but, from the start of 2013, if you priced Bovis at the 670p it would need to be to get back to the 1.03 PBV it started the period at, that's a share price gain of just 19% in eight years.

By contrast, the comparative for Redrow is 238%...

Funny old world, ain't it..?

Obviously most folks are looking at the numbers somewhat differently to me...?

Or maybe they're looking at different numbers..?

Strictly

Vlad,

I imagined you would be very much on the same song sheet as me when it comes to fund fees.

Re replies to comments on share chats etc., I like to think I make rational (if sometimes long winded - I get a lot of stick about that) and civilised responses, usually with an attempt or two at a bit of levity, but sometimes there is a temptation (fortunately always resisted thus far) to sometimes just give a one word reply beginning with w instead....

Clearly the folk on the Telegraph online reacting to my couple of comments there about fees had never come across Jack Bogle.

Re the south west coast path, yes, absolutely.... when I lived on the New Forest, I used to come down for walking trips of several days at a time with either mates or my wife, always taking in plenty of pubs along the way.

Now I live on Dartmoor, at Haytor, I've got this open access National Park right on my doorstep, that's like a great big back garden, so in respect of going through lockdown, I feel hugely blessed.

Apart from that, and walking the South Hams, the big thing for me in the season, since I sold my boat several years ago, is paddling the South Estuaries in a kayak... this is wussy stuff compared to going down the River Dart when it's in spate... you can lose your life doing that... a friend's son, as a fireman, was involved with pulling a body out of that river a couple of years back.

And I'm the same with investing, a complete wuss....

That's why I don't invest in either high priced, cash burning technos on the one hand or the investing equivalent of occupants of God's waiting room on the other (I'm sure you understand the sort of companies I'm referring to there..?)

Strictly

Vlad, you threw me there for a moment until I realised you were talking about Countryside, not Inland... duh, it's getting late in the evening....

I've not previously got past that Countryside sell at over 2 x book, i.e. it's much dearer than Redrow or Bellway.....

That's like choosing a Lada for a hire car when you have the option of a Merc at half the price... :-)

I don't use ROCE, and perhaps you've just underlined why...

I use ROE by taking start and finish BVPS adjusted for divs paid in the year... on that basis, you can pretty much ignore the P&L account ~ unless you need a nice work of fiction for a bedtime story, the mythical earnings, and all that ~ and just work from the essential numbers from the balance sheet, the reality check earnings...

This may not suit everyone, and maybe it's even a bit controversial, but it's worked for me for more than twenty years in this game.

The other thing with ROE, it's a Rod Stewart job, as in "That's all you need"

I mean, all you need for ROE and reality check EPS are those details above, the BVPS and the div each year, and you can't say that about ROCE as that's all a bit more complicated, more of a bird in the Kate Bush if I stick with the theme...

I did take a quick butcher's at Countryside, though, as you've talked about them... the increase in BVPS 2020 confused me seeing as they made a loss, but then I checked the full time whistle and found they did a big share placement in the year but dumped the cash in retained earnings rather than in share premium where it should more properly go.

So I thought that was a bit cheeky, and that's now another reason I'd probably keep clear of them....

Going back to the conversation in the Telegraph online earlier, I'm imagining you saw the article on St Mods but, like me, couldn't access the comments as I'm sure you would have had a view to express...?

I've mentioned them here, on LSE INL, in a previous comment, and that they went sideways for the past four years - that's hardly up to snuff for a house builder, is it..?

I also went a bit off-piste (for some reason?) and got caught up in a discussion about fund fees in the Telegraph online, and, as a consequence, seemed to naff a couple of readers off in the process... it reminded me of your recent sentiment, about that most people there really don't get it, do they... and, like you, I'm only trying to give some helpful information & facts out (though, also like you I suppose, I do quite enjoy calmly arguing my corner in the face of a wall of nonsense, only resorting to attempts at humour occasionally...!)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/funds/questor-investors-should-stay-alert-charges-high-costs-not-always/

Strictly

"Strictly - fire away on Vod......it's not exactly been a stellar experience it has to be said."
..........................................

Oi Oi, I can see that you are a master of understatement...!

The Youtube clip from yesterday (Monty Python's Black Knight) say it all for me, really, in respect of their dividend policy, but no doubt you'll come across more in War & Peace in due course.

As you've been a long term holder, I'd better not put too much about them here, as nothing that have to say about them as an investing prospect is good.

So at least watch the clip and give yourself a chuckle....

Strictly

"St Mods a slightly different kettle of fish to Inland .Less scattergun they were past masters at securing great lumps of land on option in the Midlands ."

.....................................

Sain, I would say that there's the story....

And then there's the numbers....

And I would also suggest that there's an echo here of the dog days of Telford.... they kept telling a good story, didn't they, and people wanted, almost desperately in some cases I reckon, to buy into that narrative.

But the numbers gave the lie to the story and, for my part, I took action on that just a Iittle bit too late - and that cost me.

But, such is life.... I ain't complaining.... though I do try to avoid making the same mistake twice if I can help it.

As I said in an earlier post here yesterday, the numbers say that St Mods have gone sideways for four years whereas Inland have done much better than that, and yet are also much cheaper...

I had a conversation about Vodafone recently in a Telegraph online investing article (I put a link to it yesterday here) with another contributor there (and I'd better be careful what I say here as Oi Oi is a VOD investor and he's intending to join the blog... :-) ).

But the point is, I suspect I was naffing the other person off a bit because he clearly didn't like what I was saying about VOD, but all I was doing was throwing numbers at the discussion, and I would have thought that if he didn't agree with me then the first thing would be to challenge to numbers I used...?

But he didn't do that and, overwhelmingly, I find that people don't (okay, as you no doubt have noticed, they do on the blog, and sometimes I have got numbers wrong and so I am rightly pulled on it) so then there's not really any basis for further useful discussion, is there..?

So, anyway, St Mods MIGHT be about to burst from the gloom into the sunshine...?

But I really don't know, though it seems unlikely to me and, anyway, and it's above my pay grade to take a view on it to the extent of considering investing there...

After all, I'm the ultimate in wussy investors...!

Strictly

"Am going to have a look Strictly. I also note you're in Vodafone, as am (v heavily actually), as is my dad (far more so than me - he's held them since they came out of racal in '88). I've also kept my verizon shares too"

......................................

Oi Oi,

I just scrolled back through my posts out of curiosity about where you might have picked up that notion about my holding Vodaphone...?

It must have been this below the dotted line....?

And if you use FT.com to put up a price graph against Bellway since the year 2003, which would probably have been around when I'd taken a good look at Vodafone, you should be able to see why I was rather underwhelmed....

Strictly

..........................

RE: Buffett03 Feb 2021 15:08

Monty,
This was the Telegraph article:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/shares/questor-watchdogs-taking-heat-vodafone-getting-grip-costs-buy/
And this was the Python clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmInkxbvlCs
I was trying to bring a bit of levity to the topic.... after all, if someone's an investor in Vodafone, FFS, they need something to cheer them up...!

Oi Oi,

Ah, I'm not sure why you thought I'm in Vodafone....?

There might be a conversation to be had there, but I don't think you'll like my view on them, as I identified them as being a very poor investment prospect more than fifteen years ago, and I'd rest my case on their performance ever since...

If you'd like to discuss that, it might be better "off air"...?

If so, if you have a scroll down the BWY chat you should find several people lately who have put up an email address so I could send them an invite for a private blog we have for this investing-in-house-builders-game (which goes by the same name as my LSE moniker).

If you like, I could ask one of them whether they'd be happy for you to make contact via one of those email addresses, and we could take it from there...?

Strictly

Oi Oi,

Well, as I'm sure you already know, you can just click on my moniker and scroll back through the past posts from there....

There have been some good ongoing discussions on both TEF and BWY in the past.... all that seems to have evaporated these days, but there you go....

Strictly

Oi Oi,

The impression I always have of you is that you speak very much from personal, on the ground, experience and, as I've said before here, I appreciate that you make the effort put that up on this share chat as that's an element I very much don't have.

However, what I do have (and I don't know whether you've read back through posts I've made in the past, mainly on TEF and BWY share chat?) is that I ALWAYS focus on the numbers - which, providing they're not fraudulent, are the cold marble slab of truth that pushes through all the hype & waffle.

And yes, I appreciate that Inland haven't made a Bellway or Redrow beating return on equity.

But then if, for, example Inland make a 12% ROE and Bellway make a 15% ROE (and it was closer than that for the past four years, but anyway...) then, with a PBV for Bellway of 1.2 and a PBV of only 0.7 for Inland, you would currently pay 120p for 100p of Bellway book value which earns 15p (at 15% ROE) making a return on investment of 12.5%

Whereas, with Inland, you pay currently 70p for 100p of book value which earns 12p (at 12% ROE) making a return on investment of 17.1%.

Bit of a difference, isn't it..?

And then there's that the house builders tend to be like Lindisfarne, in that they all swing together price-wise, on the whole....

But that doesn't apply to Inland so, if you're prepared to apply an appropriate weighting to Inland's book value, you can hopefully come to an accommodation with yourself about whether you think Inland is relatively cheap or relatively expensive compared to Bellway, et al, at any time...

That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be right of course...!

But, for me, I do give that my best shot.... all things considered, I've got that at around 30% to 35% for Inland, which makes their weighted PBV much closer to, but still cheaper than, Bellway and Redrow (the only two contenders at present, the other house builders are currently way too expensive for me, and that includes Crest as of recently...)

But the Lindisfarne point is that historically there's been more volatility opportunity to trade between Inland and other house builders, in the pursuit of perceived best value, than just between house builders which are more two of a kind.

And the other point is that weaknesses can also be strengths.....

I mean, Inland might not be able to manage a kick a.se mid twenties percent ROE like Bellway and Redrow when the house building game is flying, but they do have more options in their tool box to plod on when the retail house building game takes a turn for the worst.

Strictly

Demos & Oi Oi,

Interesting coincidence that your comments have coincided with a plug for St Modwens Properties, a similar sized company as Inland, in the Telegraph online investing section this morning.

IMO, most of the investing articles there beggar belief in their ineptitude in the inappropriate companies' shares that they push and this was no exception (I imagine that once Vlad, as he is named on LSE, or Bogdan as his moniker goes on the Telegraph, has had his cornflakes, he'll be giving them his usual appropriate kicking about it there, but that's by the by - though I'm looking forward to reading it...).

So, to hopefully restore spirits (like the two of you, I also have a substantial holding on Inland shares), it might be helpful & appropriate to give a quick rear view mirror comparison.

The push for St Modwens was based on that they currently sell at a discount to tangible net assets....

However, that discount is only a third of Inland's.

So, what sort of performance are you buying for that?

Over the past four years, St Modwens book value per share has gone sideways (actually, it's gone down a smidgen, but I don't want to be picky).

By contrast, Inland's BVPS has gone up 49%.

This puts it close up to the leaders, Bellway and Redrow, at 60% and 56% respectively.

And well ahead of some of the others.... Persimmon at 22% and Crest at 16%.

And let's not even go there on Bovis (or Battersea as it is fondly known as in our circle) at, by my reckoning (as we haven't had the full time whistle there yet), minus (13%).

Oops, I did....

Yet you can buy Inland at a very humble PBV of only 0.7.

I make no forecasts or predictions here, I'm merely aiming to ground this in the actual numbers that we have.

For myself as well as for you.. :-)

Strictly

PS but, bl..dy hell, that number for Battersea.... and you've got to pay nearly 1.4 x book for the delights of owning that one..!

Monty,

I just sent you an invite for the blog, so if you received that you can reply to me directly and if you didn't just let me know on here....

Strictly

Alan & Oi Oi,

Just a note to say that I appreciate your thoughts on this, Oi Oi, and also thanks for that link you put up, Alan...

Interesting to read that Inland floated at 50p a share back in 2007,and ended that day at 55.5p, which is pretty much where they are right now, fourteen years later.

One of my cardinal personal rules for investing is don't touch initial public offerings with a barge pole, and, looking at Inland's, I'd say "And I now rest my case, M'Lud".

I'm aware that Oi Oi has been a fan of Inland for longer than I've been especially aware of them, though, right now, they are a substantial holding for me (I've only got two other companies' shares in my portfolio: Redrow, the largest by percentage, and Bellway, a slightly lower percentage than Inland.... as my moniker implies, I only invest in house builder shares.... nothing else...).

I'm also aware that Oi Oi seems to have plenty of ground knowledge about Inland and, as such, I do take note of your comments here, Sir.. (unlike the calibre of those of many other commenters here on LSE share chat :-) ).

But I wanted to say that, rightly or wrongly, I'm not necessarily feeling the degree of despondency that I'm sensing here about Inland right now....

So, they've had a bad year.... worse than the big boys by some margin, as they only generally lost half a year's profit, though that was in part by Inland having to raise some dosh in a share placing at distressed prices so it seemed more like a mini rights issue in its impact on existing shareholders' value... probably that's a disadvantage of being a relative tiddler in a pond full of FTSE250 & FTSE100 companies?

But perhaps take heart from Crest.... never mind six months, they've had a duff two years - seems largely down to getting their London operation so Pete Tong, and their price was duly hammered last June upon release of their figures.... and now look... at the end of January (they've slipped back since) they were almost up with Redrow on their PBV (by "almost" I mean, just 3% off).

So what was that about, beyond being that old nutter, Mr Market..?

So, the upshot for me is that I've have bought some more Inland shares this week.... unless I'm missing something, I'm not seeing that their PBV should be right down to just above 0.7, and the team running the business are old campaigners with plenty of scar tissue...

I have a lot of faith in Mathew 7.16 (the only bit of the bible I know) and I put store on that to see Wickes & Malde through what is, hopefully, not much more than a rather big bump in the road...?

And, providing the value IS there, I'm okay about waiting for the price to catch up, if it comes to that....?

Strictly

Monty, I feel like I'm marking your homework...! :-)

Bellway looks fine except I've got BVPS 2018 being £2,557.1m/122.98m share = 2,079p, which gives a slightly better 2019 ROE.

Redrow 2019 is tricky, as that year they had this B share wheeze, which lost them a brownie point with me as they'd previously declared reluctance to pay more than a minimum dividend seeing as it is a destroyer of share holder value once the price is above book (that's my way of putting it, BTW, not theirs) and then they go and bamboozle their investors with this smoke and mirrors B share event that, while it looked great at first glance, you ended up a share short for every 21 shares you'd previously had so it was easy to lose sight of how much exactly each share had made.

At least, for a duffer like me, it was...

I won't get into it here, but I ended up after two attempts, back at the time, with an effective div paid in the year of 39.07p, an EPS for 2019 of 87.07p and an ROE of 21.5%.

So you might want to look at the Bellway 2018 BVPS, but it could be that I got that wrong, and it seems to me as though you've pretty much cracked this...

Therefore, no detention...!

If all you were given to work from were a balance sheet every year, the details of the dividend per share paid in the year, and the number of shares in issue at each balance sheet date then, providing you've got that information going back far enough (and for Bellway I've got it since 1983), then as Rod Stewart sang, "That's all you need" - everything else is pretty much there to impress or bamboozle you and to encourage you to put the numbers in the "too hard" drawer (as my son-in-law in New Zealand would say) and leave it to the so-called experts (and may the good Lord protect us from them..!).

I wouldn't mind betting (except that I don't bet) that Redrow themselves may not have thought all the implications of that B share through.... it was, IMO, primarily intended as a tax efficient alternative to the "me too" big divs the other builders were doing....

But those were started by King Jeff, at Persimmon, who, in turn, probably got the idea from Tony Pidgeley (now dec'd) of Berkeley Homes who was part way through pulling the same stunt some years earlier when he got headed off at the pass by the credit crunch...

But King Jeff clearly knew what he was doing - he got a nine figure bonus, signed off by the major shareholders, like turkeys voting for Christmas...

Not sure what the motive was for the other companies in such a fecund period of the property cycle, but there you go - I just wrote about that in the comments under this Telegraph investing article if you want to consider it further...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/shares/questor-forget-gamestop-hype-stick-knitting-likes-crest-nicholson/

I'm getting into a bit of a rant there, and I've nearly run out of character space, so I'll leave it with you - but feel welcome to come back at me about it...

Strictly