B.p. Marsh & Partners Share Discussion Threads

[corrientes] 21/10/2015 09:31

Not to be morbid, but if the Chairman prefers IHT rather than lifetime CGT, understandable ; not a lot is going to happen to the BPM shares price. Its still a fiefdom, despite opinions to the contrary.

[danieldruff2] 21/10/2015 09:15

elmfield, the ultimate long term view is that it floated almost 10 years ago at 140p and it's now at 150p with a poor dividend record while u wait.

[tom.muir] 21/10/2015 08:44

If Brian Marsh packed in, as suggested here, the share price would tank!!
I have been here since 2012 at an average price of 89p.
Seen a rise of 50% and a prospective yield of over 3%.
Happy to hold it as part of my 'Long Term Economic Plan' :)

Tom

[elmfield] 20/10/2015 21:04

Well sky has a very good record!
I would respect sky's views, yes I would!
However I think with this share it is a matter of
having a longer term view than many will have.
I am more than happy to hold, I see value and see this
as a good place to be in these troubled times.

[pavey ark] 20/10/2015 20:45

Not very informative or constructive comments here today.
I'm fairly new to this share having bought in late August at 140p.
It's a fairly natural and certainly very common reaction on these BBs to turn negative on a share immediately after selling and then we have those who just like being negative, does it make them seem more worldly ? I don't know.
The business seems to be moving along quite nicely and like the bit where they appear to be criticised for having lots of cash coming.
Good solid rise in asset value and as I said earlier a 20% compound growth in share price over the last three years with a rising asset value.
I obviously did some research here but this is not a large investment for me.
Almost all of the longer term holders will know much more than me but there has been nothing said on here today that suggests that this company is anything other than the one I thought I was buying into.
I certainly will restrict the number of times I post here as it is not a large investment but I will read the posts in the hope of picking up some info.
Edit: I see the substantial rise in the dividend as an obvious sign of the management responding to shareholders but I don't have all the background information.

[corrientes] 20/10/2015 19:40

When you run a fiefdom, I suppose outside shareholders are even more irrelevant. Little acorns are sweet if you can get enough of them, or at least they are for those lucky few who have their snouts in the trough, leaving a few crumbs for the rest.

Still at least fortunes won't be lost here, but certainly there won't be any sizeable profits to be made under the present regime. IMO.

[skyship] 20/10/2015 18:50

"We are subject of course to competing demands from our shareholders, some of whom ask for more income, some recommend further buy-backs and some are only interested in capital growth. We must therefore find a middle ground to occupy, whilst maintaining sufficient cash to develop our current portfolio businesses and invest in new opportunities, which means that we will continue to manage our resources prudently."

Well, as you might imagine, I am in correspondence with our Chairman and I fall very firmly in the camp wanting a considerably improved dividend; and also a more committed buyback policy. Spending just £82k to buy back 63,000 shares last year is pitiful, it is paying lip service to a very necessary Discount Control Mechanism.

I also don't like the way they continually and disingenuously talk about the entirely misleading compound growth in the NAV. Much of the growth was "apparently" earned in the years before the 2006 listing. Post listing the growth is nearer 6%pa.

BPM has in fact been a serial under-performer, trawling in a low growth field - why, because they buy brokers - essentially businesses where profits are paid out to directors/partners rather than shareholders.

Of course, the discount balances the value appraisal somewhat, but I would prefer that they distribute back to shareholders through dividends, buybacks or tenders, much of their increasing cash reserve. Remember they have another £6m coming from their Hyperion loan in Oct'17; earlier if they IPO. I see they make no mention of that in today's statement.

I took advantage of today's rise to reduce my holding - feel like a traitor, but still in here...

[elmfield] 20/10/2015 18:28

Simon T,
I daresay will address this!

[pavey ark] 20/10/2015 16:44

"On turning to the effect of these measures, on 25(th) September 2012, our share price stood at 86p with a 48% discount to NAV, whereas at the time of writing it stands at 145.5p and a 35% discount."

I make that a 19% compound increase in the share price over the last three years (21% if you include today's figures)
Where did it all go wrong !!!???

[corrientes] 20/10/2015 13:43

So the share price continues to show stunted growth, if you can call it that, over the last few years,though the business continues on its upward trajectory.
The discount to its net asset value shows no real sign of reducing, despite the claims that this shouldn't continue. Well it does !

Maybe that's the problem for a company where the chairman owns nearly two thirds of the equity, and its interests in the smaller small end of its particular sector can't be helping.

Only when the chairman decides to cash in, will further value be realised. IMO.

[peter27] 20/10/2015 09:18

Nav goes up 9.5% and the price goes up 6.5%. How does that make sense??

[shauney2] 20/10/2015 08:32

Good results as expected.Still well behind nav.

Panmure have upped their target to 180p.

[spob] 20/10/2015 08:25

added to my holding this morning

took twenty minutes to do it though

[elmfield] 19/10/2015 20:19

Early up then!

[skyship] 19/10/2015 15:50

A little bit of activity ahead of tomorrow's Interims...

[breaktwister] 19/10/2015 15:49

Nice tick up in advance of results tomorrow, a grossly undervalued share but who knows when the market will reflect this?

[pavey ark] 10/10/2015 09:58

What a steady, calm share this is.
Results due soon and any upgrade in the asset value (rather likely) must make the current price look rather silly.

[corrientes] 10/9/2015 15:08

Thanks Skyship. A nice tight spread.

[skyship] 10/9/2015 14:31

Another good update from Simon Thompson in his regular IC Online contributions.

Won't post as it is a sub site (& well worth it too!); but will post the final para:

"Or put it another way, BP Marsh's shares are not only being priced on a deep 33 per cent discount to book value of 216p even though there is a decent chance of valuation uplifts on the equity portfolio next month, but the downside risk is mitigated because over 20 per cent of its book value will be turned into cash in 10 months time. Add to that the near 25 per cent proposed rise in the annual payout, and BP Marsh's shares are being very attractively priced."

With a load of cash coming back from the Hyperion deal next July (c45p/share) I am hoping that we may see a Capital Repayment....whatever, it provides another positive to justify a BUY at current levels.

[skyship] 08/9/2015 07:49

Good Trading Update & nice dividend increase. Interims scheduled for 20th October.
=======================================================================

B.P. Marsh is pleased to announce that for the financial year ended 31(st) January 2016 the Board has now recommended increasing the proposed dividend to 3.42 pence per share. Additionally, it is the Board's intention to maintain at least this level of dividend for the financial year ended 31(st) January 2017, subject to ongoing review and approval by the Board and the Shareholders.

The increase in the proposed dividend is in recognition of the steady growth of the Group's investment portfolio, whilst also demonstrating that the Group is an attractive capital and income investment to its diverse shareholder base.

The Management team remains positive about the Group's ability to generate long term returns from the existing investment portfolio, alongside an interesting pipeline of new investment opportunities.

[corrientes] 20/8/2015 10:33

Moving at a snail's pace but then market sentiment is diabolical, so maybe we should be grateful for stability.

[skyship] 20/8/2015 10:26

Trades suggest we could have seen a 237k buyback @ 144p. Hope so - would add £170k to the NAV! Actually that's only 0.6p of course...still, would have satisfactorily removed a seller.

[elmfield] 11/8/2015 19:23

Solid foundations....

[skyship] 06/8/2015 17:47

"B.P. Marsh (AIM: BPM), the niche venture capital provider to early stage financial services businesses, announces that it has been notified that the Self Invested Pension Plan of Daniel Topping, an Executive Director of the Company, has today purchased 23,414 ordinary shares of 10 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 148 pence per Ordinary Share."