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It's hit the BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53635235
"A takeover battle is brewing for the AA after the self-styled fourth emergency service attracted bid interest from private equity firms.
The Times has learnt that at least two private equity firms have made initial contact, with one rumoured to have mooted an offer of 40p a share — equating to a market value of about £250 million, or about £2.9 billion including £2.6 billion of debt.
The suitors are thought to include Towerbrook Capital Partners, which last month acquired Azzurri Group, the owner of the Zizzi and Ask Italian restaurants chains, and the New York-based Warburg Pincus.
Founded in 1905 as the Automobile Association, the AA provides car and home insurance as well as roadside breakdown assistance for 13 million members"
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aa-attracts-rival-private-equity-bids-w06l3wnrg
https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1290405566821683201/photo/1
Forgot to add - this was all PRE LOCKDOWN. Insurance is the cash cow and hopefully less driving meant fewer claims. People are not likely to have cancelled their motor insurance - people still used the cars, albeit less often, and people are precious about clocking up NCB. No one wanted to lose a year for a lockdown that may have only been weeks.
I would take comfort in the fact that the last company report showed figures - the profit especially. Note, the above details are from some months ago with regards the info about shorts
Revenue rising +2% to £1b.
Profit doubling to £107m.
Ebitda at £350m.
Roadside membership growing.
Average income per member rising.
Average income per business-customer rising.
Motor insurance unit growing +19%.
Average income per insurance policy rising +4%.
Conversion from roadside member to insurance leaping from 25% to 36%.
Free cashflow soaring sevenfold from £12m to £83m.
Cash in hand at £200m.
Pension deficit and total debt reduced by £300m.
The debt and pension corner is turning.
Dividend yield (when it returns) currently around 10%.
No material business impact from the plague.
Shorts have fallen rapidly from 11% in May 2019 to 8% in Mar 2020 and 6% in early Apr 2020.
Shorts today still have ~40 million shares to buy back.
Big short squeeze underway.
Technical charts today pointing strongly to 27p as the next stop.
Daily trading volume is currently 20-40 times higher than normal.
Rising price + rising volume = bullish sign.
Fair value is calculated at 99p.
Almost all major broker forecasts currently range from 50p to 200p.
Well they don't really make money the more people who break down (unless these people don't have membership and have to pay).
Consider also the number of people staying local for holidays this year. More cars, more accidents, more claims.
Hopefully the many months of limited driving gives a nice cash pile on the insurance side
Three months ago there was a poster ramping then on here other forums. As in customary I then went to that forum to deraml (only way to stop them)
Looked at Intu, told everyone they were in a downward spiral with poor outlook. Three months later gone.
We had a ramper come to another board and try to ramp this share. KRSS was the user.
My post in March - "I just can't see why anyone would even think about investing in this. It's been in a death spiral since floating."
Sorry for people who lost money. I didn't expect this to happen so soon but stand by what I said and I'm not surprised.
Thanks littlewhale. Always wondered that
Just to add - it's not that relevant with the AA but a tactic to keep your shares from being loaned out to shorters:
1.) Ask your broker if they loan out shares. Many don't which is good if you believe in a company.
2.) Place a sell limit. Shares cannot be loaned out if they have a sell limit. To be safe set if for something like £800 and set the time limit to the maximum allowed.
This is what I used to do with some US shares I owned with a US broker. They would loan out shares but I made sure that mine could be. Get enough people to do this and the number of shares available to short drops and many funds will look elsewhere to make a profit.
Most people here buy shares because they think they will go up (AKA going long/longs)
Many large hedge funds and some individuals short stocks (AKA going short / shorting / shorters)
To go short they borrow shares, wait for them to drop and then return them back. Pocketing the difference. They get hurt if the share goes up but could wait it out.
Blatant lying.
Not ramping but I just went out for a drive. I purposely drained the car of oil beforehand so it would seize up and so I could call out the AA for help and spend a lot of time with the recovery driver.
He said it was all gravy from here onward, that directors were all rushing to place orders now to execute as soon as regulations will allow.
The flatbed turned up and the driver said the same but also that he also had a cousin whose best friend's sister works at HQ as a executive assistant. He said that he said that she said there american bankers in AA HQ this week all talking about big investments.....but there were not enough shares to go around so they started fighting each other in the office until only four large investments funds were left. Two have bought and two left so lots more to come and £10+ before close of play today.
0.o
I've been holding since about 370p from years ago. I'm tempted now to jump out for some quick gains and get back in after it drops. Maybe a nice 5-10% gain. However, normally when I try this kind of thing it just keeps going up!
KRSS please stop ramping this stock on the forums of other companies (BARC, LLOY, etc). For every time you come in trying to get people to buy we will come here and point out flaws so all people see is bad news.Do yourself a favour - ramping on other boards is counter-productive.
I just can't see why anyone would even think about investing in this. It's been in a death spiral since floating.