Member Info for tars

81.7 please

Monsieur Roofer perhaps we could also run a prophecy regarding the Vodafone share price on 31st December 2023. My prediction is 121p which also happens to be my average cost of my Vodafone shares.

81.7 please

75.7 please

My prediction for next week is 10 x current dividend - ever the optimist

81.5 for me please

81.5p for me please. As Joseph Heller once remarked: Things can only get better unless of course they get worse.

81.5 for me please Roofer

Although I am an optimist, these past few weeks I have a sense of dread each time I lookup the Vodafone share price. The feeling is akin to when I was a youngster and religiously tuned the radio into the classified football results every Saturday afternoon to find out how my team had fared.

80.5p

at some point short positions will be closed to avoid the risk of E& upping their stake

80

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein

Today just under 90 million Vodafone shares were traded which is roughly 0.35% of total Vodafone shares in circulation. During May the share price has gone from 95p to 76p a fall of 20%. During this time roughly 7% of Vodafone shares have been traded, so roughly 93% of Vodafone shares have not changed hands during May.

So what to make of this.

First Point

As the Vodafone share price is the lowest it's been in years, why would institutions and major shareholders sell at such a low price. You could argue that those selling think the share price will go lower. Fair enough, but according to the numbers those selling are in a small minority. Most shareholders are holding. A more compelling reason for the share price drop is that the Vodafone shares are being shorted and these shorts are spread across numerous hedge funds and their subsidiaries where each short in less than 1%. I expect these shorts will need to be closed soon as the shorts are fairly high risk if E% decide to up their stake or heaven forbid someone bids for the company (most unlikely but neither 0% chance).

Second Point

By the way I am seriously underwater with my Vodafone share purchases as my average buying price is 1.21 and I own a shed load of them. However, I am not too concerned. Back in December last year I was down about 30K on my Rolls Royce shares but in just 10 weeks come 8th March that deficit had turned into well over a 100k profit as the share price moved from 69p to 158p. So long term Vodafone shareholders don't get disheartened. Let's hope the turnaround in the share price happens before the sun turns into a lump of coal (A Dilbert quote when asked how long his project would take)

Vodafone share price higher than the next dividend payout

At this rate of decline it will not be long before the dividend is higher than the share price assuming the dividend isn't cut

99 for me please Roofer

Wind and solar need to be backed up, close to 100 per cent, by some other means of power generation. If that backup is provided by open-cycle gas or worse, coal, net zero will never be achieved: nor anything very close to it.

There is one technology that can provide a cheap and reliable supply of low-emissions electricity: nuclear power. Interest in nuclear power is increasing as more and more people realise that it is safe and reliable. If regulators and the public could be persuaded that modern stations are inherently safe and that low levels of nuclear radiation are not dangerous, nuclear power could provide all the low cost, low emissions electricity the world needs for hundreds or thousands of years.

But if we had 100 per cent nuclear backup for solar and wind, we wouldn't need the wind and solar plants at all.

Wind and solar are, in fact, completely pointless.

101 for me please

110p

113 (new CEO appointed)

Mr Cunningham added: “It takes many years to build, it's very, very expensive, particularly as the cost of renewables has come down so dramatically.”

Boris Johnson, and Tom Samson of Rolls Royce SMR look at a model of a Rolls Royce Nuclear Power plant
Mr Samson had led efforts to secure a place for Rolls-Royce SMR division in the UK's nuclear revolution

Rolls Royce insisted Mr Samson’s departure was by mutual consent. The company’s former civil aviation boss Chris Cholerton will lead the SMR business until a replacement for Mr Samson is found.

The company said: “The Board and Tom have decided that a new CEO would be better placed to take the business forward at this critical junction in the growth of Rolls-Royce SMR.

“Accordingly, it has been mutually agreed with immediate effect that Tom will leave the business to pursue other interests.”

As part of the shake-up Rob Watson, head of the company's electric plane business will be promoted to lead the company’s key civil division, which develops jet engines for passenger airliners.

Adam Riddle will replace former defence boss Tom Bell, and has also been made chairman and chief executive of Rolls’ North America business.

Mr Erginbilgic is battling to return Britain’s biggest engineer to growth and profitability after it was ravaged by the drop in travel caused by the pandemic.

The company made much of its revenue from maintaining engines, offering power by the hour to airline customers. When planes around the world were grounded during lockdown, that money dried up.

His predecessor Warren East raised billions of pounds from investors and sold businesses including Spanish engine parts maker ITP Aero to patch up the company’s finances.

Rolls is particularly dependent on the return to growth of the long-haul travel market, since its commercial jet engines are all designed for the largest planes.

In spite of being only a few months in the job, Mr Erginbilgic has already secured a big order from Air India which could spend as much as $3.5bn with Rolls after buying 470 aircraft last month to renew its fleet.

Announcing the overhaul on Friday, Mr Erginbilgic said: “With the leadership changes announced today we are acting at pace and gaining the momentum we need to transform Rolls-Royce. Together, my leadership team has a winning mindset, strong strategic alignment and a shared ambition to make Rolls-Royce a company that delivers for all stakeholders."

Rolls-Royce’s new chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic has ordered a shake-up of the engineer’s top team after he clashed with executives amid a battle to revive the company’s fortunes.

The FTSE 100-listed jet maker said on Friday that Tom Samson, head of its small modular reactor (SMR) developer, would leave as part of the overhaul, while finance boss Panos Kakoullis would be replaced.

Mr Kakoullis has been replaced with Mr Erginbilgic’s former BP colleague Helen McCabe, who was part of his team when he was a top executive at the oil company. Ms McCabe is Rolls-Royce’s sixth finance chief in two years.

Mr Erginbilgic and Mr Kakoulis are understood to be "different characters" according to someone familiar with the move, and that the new chief executive sought to replace the finance chief with Ms McCabe, who he said could deliver "dramatic improvements". Mr Kakoulis will remain on the board until at least 31 Aug.

It comes after Mr Erginbilgic called Rolls a “burning platform” in a speech to staff when he became chief executive in January.

The former BP executive subsequently launched a strategic review of the business and said shareholders would not receive an annual dividend for 2022.

Mr Samson, who has headed up Rolls’s project to make mini-nukes since its inception in 2020, leaves as the company battles to win contracts for the power plants.

It was dealt a blow last month when ministers said other companies with similar technology could compete for the next round of government funding to make the power plants a reality.

The SMR business froze hiring earlier this month since no government orders were on the horizon.

Mr Erginbilgic told The Telegraph in February that Britain risks squandering its role as a leader in mini-nuclear reactor technology if ministers fail to throw their support behind a key project.

He said at the time: “We need to come to the table and work very seriously and sign an agreement for the deployment of the first project. First mover advantage will be important.”

The project is at the mercy of government caprice and the UK has a chequered history of keeping its promises on large nuclear projects, said Nick Cunningham, an aviation analyst.

Mr Erginbilgic is unlikely to want to exit defence and civil engine building or the company’s power business, which could make the SMR project a target for being sold, he said.

Mr Cunningham added: “It takes many years to build, it's very, very expensive, particularly a

On Thursday Grant Shapps will unveil ways to speed up Britain’s move towards nuclear energy, including the confirmation that the Government wants 25pc of UK electricity to be generated from nuclear by 2050.

He will also kick-start the use of small modular reactors in Britain, and improve the country’s capacity for carbon capture storage.