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Centrica staff are stuck in the old 1970-80’s mind set hindering progress of the organisation and its own survival and therefore their own job security. Company is net-net making losses and losing customers as they are not competitive compared to other suppliers. I would not just blame the management for the mess they are in as staff also need to play their part to support the change agenda to successfully the turn organisation around. Unions are trying their best to make the management fail once again by putting obstacles all the way through. Of course, change is difficult, but they have to embrace it at this day and age and if you are skillful you have so many freelance opportunities that come by, so why stick to Centrica. Chris O'Shea and the senior management have a tough job in hand, but i admire the resolve of the management to drive the change agenda forward, cos if they don’t, they/staff/engineers/Centrica doesn't have a future.
Unfortunately not, i didn't buy during the October peak price. I have a holding of 82K shares at an average of 1.18. So comfortable holding this and to collect dividends on the way and see where this lands. But i suspect that the price is being kept at this level to attract bidders.
I suspect that this is becoming a takeover target. Viewpoints as below.
Given that most mining companies in the world (esp precious metals miners) are flush with funds based on PM rises last year they will have enough appetite to take this Class 1 Sukari asset to their portfolio and generate returns over time.
For companies like Barrick Gold, which virtually has not debt (371m) and recently splashed out 750m as a special dividend, it is pocket change to buy Centamin even for £.25 billion and add 450K ounces of gold production pear year even excluding the recent licences.
Third, Centamin's share price is currently very low, which means an offer if made is very advantageous to the buyer
Fourth, Barrick Gold CEO is a deal maker and they have couple of years ago acquired acacia mining completely which also operates in Africa
Only time will tell, but fingers crossed let's hope we hear that soon.
https://uk.investing.com/news/economy/boes-saunders-says-negative-rates-may-be-best-tool-2305406
Perhaps this explains the rise in gold futures today.
Agreed. Think UK markets are the worst for wealth generation and best for wealth destruction. Only hedge funds who short make money at the expense of LTHs. If you look over there are hardly any shares where LTHs will make any money. This begs the question should investors look for short term gains for 15-20% margin and move on to the next one or stay put for long term returns (which frankly over 10 years is either negative or break even)..
I have topped up as well at 44.23. Looks like the MMs wanted to flush the weak PIs before taking this forward ahead of the sale news early new year.
Don't understand the markets. ITM Power and Ceres that have negligible revenues compared to Centrica's circa £25bn per year are at the same market cap as Centrica and ITM is more than Centrica at the moment. Know there could be future potential for those companies, but Centrica's market cap is just ridiculous right now considering it's potential and customer reach.
This is a loss making business and everyone should play their part making it better. Given a choice between keeping the job to shorter holidays, assumed longer hours, everyone knows what option people will go for. Ask the same question to anyone in the hospitality or travel sector right now they will jump in joy to take these jobs and get trained.
Agree with your views Karv1. We are not living in 1980 or 1990's. Unions need to wake up, smell the coffee and adapt to the changing times (more so with COVID where there are so many unemployed in the market right now desperately looking for a job). While engineers are the heartbeat, they are not indispensable as anyone including CIO, CFO, Chairman etc are dispensable and the business will still carry on.
Centrica management in my opinion is taking the right decisions (including selling their prized assets) to turn around a loss-making business (loss of £1bn last year), which will help secure the jobs of the engineers now and for years to come. Employees have had their fair share of benefits over the years when the business was delivering profits including extra time, bonuses etc whilst shareholders who provide working capital were royally let down with price coming down from £4 to 40p. In many cases, the engineers earn much more than the average UK pay of £26.5K.
Think Centrica will have to stand firm to force a change, either with the unions or with the government that introduced increased competition, price caps and green levies as they cannot let the business continue as is and eventually collapse. Chris O'Shea and the BOD will not be popular in the short term, but they would have secured so many jobs for many people both now and in the future.
Suspect sector rotation, generally utility stocks are up in the market and the imminent arrival of the trading update.
Given that shorts have closed around this range in the last few days, i suspect that there will be short covering later in the day again. As Monty said nothing ever goes in a straight line and patience is required here to realise the full potential.
IMO the three main issues which brought the decline are Revenue declines, Debt and doubts about turn around plan.
Think the management yesterday has provided confidence to the market in all three areas IMO in yesterday's update.
If management can show progress against turnaround plans consistently, there is no reason for this share not to return back to levels that it deserves to be.
Once dividends are reinstated then this will go back to the levels it deserves to be in. Let's not forget that given the turnaround plan appearing to bear fruit now, i will also not be surprised if a PE fund will be lurking looking to snap this up at this lowly valuation.
Feel sorry for you guys but we’ve been in there and bad times won’t last forever. Time is the cure which we hardly have enough these days.
Looks like Gladstone reduced their short further yesterday by 0.11% as per FCA website now at 2.23%
Mark, There are two tabs in the excel when you download. Look at the historical data tab that will give a view of all shorts below 0.5%
From FCA website, it also includes shorts where the percentage is below 0.5
I have mentioned yesterday in one of my posts. There are 5.66% shorts as of yesterday as below. That means 18,955,382 shares to be brought back.
Ardevora Asset Management LLP 0.47
Blackrock 0.27
CapeView Capital LLP 0.71
Gladstone Capital Management LLP 2.34
Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. 0.48
Millennium International Management LP 0.01
Naya Capital Management UK Limited 0.30
Sylebra Capital Limited 0.70
WorldQuant LLC 0.38