The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring financial educator and author Jared Dillian has been released. Listen here.
Nofear
"Back in those late 80s and early 90s days, London was submerged with so many stock brokers yuppies kind ones with phones 📞 in their cars selling shares like hot cakes. Just about everything that was sold that wasn't aim shares made you loads of money."
Those we good days, Margaret Thatcher boosted the city, big band, low tax etc. I applied for lots of IPOs in multiple names, mum, dad etc consolidated to one holding and quickly sold at usually good profit, we were called STAGS in those days. It also helped to have one of the big brokers, by a stroke of luck I got an account with Lang & Cruickshank which meant I could get some placing like Capita and ARM at good discount to first day trading and they seemed to have a lot of inside information (some of which they shared) which meant almost all recommendations made money. It certainly was who you know not what you know.
After some requests I did post a War and Peace version of my time with Capita last year.
"Numerco 8200/8475 (previously 8200/8400)"
Yes a tiny upturn but also Cameco up 1.5%, one swallow doesn't make a summer but perhaps, just perhaps the start of a turn around. This does feel like a pump and dump, no matter what there is a structural problem with not enough Uranium and although the spot price is a very small amount of the market if it stays down the shortage will only get worse leading to a bigger rebound upwards.
"I seem to recall Terry has been in since IPO (only one i know of)"
Yep, I first got the shares in the IPO, 1991 and added a number of times since with one sale at time of the RI, I recall Paul Pindar played a leading role and took charge in 2006 and left in 2014, in all he was at CPI for 26 years. His leaving was a warning sign but upto then CPI could do no wrong so I stayed in. For 10 years it was in the best performing shares in the FTSE, how times have changed.
"I think it just needs to be remembered, that serious numbers of people are losing their jobs"
I think it needs to be remembered, that serious numbers of shareholders have lost serious amounts of money because no one at CPI had the B@lls to do this a long time ago. It is the shareholders losses that have propped up these jobs for far too long.
If serious saving are not made this company will go under, can't keep losing £100m+ per year, if not dealt with then a lot more jobs will go.
Https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/657294/
Not sure this lot will take any notice of the people but costs nothing to sign.
"We know all the one offs which contributed to cash outflows resulting in debt increase for 23 and 24 will drop off from 25 onwards."
CPI has a warehouse full of "one offs" which it wheels out as excuses for losing money on every occasion.
If this is not life support for a company I do not know what is, constantly losing money, used up everything it can to fund it's excesses, RI, sell of family silver, loan notes and still after 6 years of turn around still not profit let alone dividends.
Nofear
"I don't either enjoy watching others lose their money"
I too take no comfort in other people losing money but for JL I will make an exception, he really deserved a taste of his own medicine as so many people were sucked unto this share as result of his lies.
RichPickings24
Total agree CPI has used up all the assets it can sell, maxed out it's credit card (over £100m bonds 6 moths ago at high interest rate) and used up all the good will with it's shareholders. JL did all he could to put off the inevitable cuts at a huge cost to the shareholders and risk of company failure.
The only other (non) option would be another equity raise but this would raise so little at current SP and destroy what little value share holders currently have.
This company must cut hard and fast there is nothing else left, it is out of time and money, JL stayed as long as possible to max out his bank account but knew his time was up.
"Let's be honest here..Any company that has to freeze staff wages can only mean the company is utterly desperate to save money to survive."
Well is that obvious, they are losing £100m+ per year, sold off the family silver and maxed out the credit card (£100m+ bonds issued about 6 months ago), what else can be done.
Just to add my two penneth, from II
"OPTION 1: Do Nothing (Default). You will keep your current holding if you take no action. You will be paid the Third Quarter Dividend of USD0.875 per share on 28 March 2024.
OPTION 2: Tender any or all your Shares. You will be issued with cash in GBP in exchange for each share, at a rate to be confirmed by the company. Clients who elect to tender will waive their entitlement to receive the companys upcoming Third Quarter Dividend of USD0.875 per share on 28 March 2024 for the portion of their shareholding successfully tendered, however the Tender Price will include a premium equivalent to the amount of the waived dividend payment.
The proceeds for both options are expected to be paid less US withholding tax the same at the applicable rate."
Looks like you will get WHT with the tender offer, I guess applied to the 5% premium, also I expect HMRC to add additional dividend tax if outside tax wrapper and high rate tax payer, also 5% premium will not attract CGT, TBD.
"There's a LOT of very highly skilled technical people in Capita, believe it or not, who'd easily walk into another job."
Well that has worked so well for the company so far, if they are so good why was a simple cyber attack responsible for losing so much data caused by a low grade worker who had access to huge amounts of sensitive data. When I was working in IT only the data required by someone was available to them, why did these "highly skilled technical people" not understand this simple principle. Also not just 1 cyber attack but 2.
The only person I knew in IT who joined Capita was more or less kicked out of his previous job as he was not very good.
"others can look elsewhere and go"
A way to reduce staff without paying redundancy, a hard move but necessary, you can't go on losing money especially now nothing else to sell and difficult to borrow when company is in this state, also capital raise would obliterate SHs.
I guess the good news is AH is prepared to make difficult decisions something JL was frightened to do which got us into this state.
Https://finance.yahoo.com/news/capita-freezes-pay-thousands-staff-110416373.html
Looks like AH is getting seriuos.
Unfortunately as I stated the lack of figures in the last TU was a bad sign that they were hiding something. JL either packed it in as there was nothing else to sell or knows he would have been pushed. As I have stated many times in the last few years JL and the rest of the useless BOD should be sacked. JL has been here for around 6 years way too long for any good he has done and still did not realise you have to make a profit or sooner or later you go under or was he just happy to stay on as long as possible to take his huge salary and benefits.
So it is deja vu all over again, and from baker street
Another year and then you'd be happy
Just one more year and then you'd be happy
But you're crying, you're crying now
Except add me in as well.
Our only hope is AH can take control of this mess and does not milk it for his salary like JL.
The only thing this company is good for is capital loses and with the reduction CGT allowances due to High Tax Hunt will be of some use.