Berkeley Share Discussion Threads

[r ball] 10/7/2017 10:00

For a dividend of 67p then the company would have had to have bought back £1.4bn of shares. You need to view the dividend in terms of % of issued shares bought not % of total dividend pre buy back.

[jrphoenixw2] 10/7/2017 09:57

Just go back a few pages and follow the declared buy-backs. Or better still go through all the RNSs and give us an accurate update ;)

2966/Me/21-Jun. Quoting BKG themselves:
‘In February, we announced that the next £138.8 million (£1 per share) will be returned by 30 September 2017, again through a mix of dividends and share buy-backs. To date, £23.2 million of share buy-backs have been made against this commitment.'
My comment: [---> Suggesting 16.71p/100p of the next div has gone on buy-backs to date]

2973/1gw/28-Jun
‘Nice to see the company buying back up to 3276p yesterday.’ [volume not mentioned]

2981/Me/4-Jul
+140k on 30 June, +125k on 3 Jul

I was away on holiday so haven’t been following these buy-backs closely. But we know the next div (cash+buy-backs) is ‘£138.8 million (£1 per share) will be returned by 30 September 2017’. Of which £23.2m was spent by 21-Jun. Plus (265k*say £32 = £8.5million) = £31.7/£138.8*100p= 22.8p gone on buy-backs, so that's 23% spent. Then the RNSs I missed whilst away...

[r ball] 10/7/2017 09:21

69 div would imply that 30% of shares have been bought back!

[jrphoenixw2] 10/7/2017 06:23

According to my notes, estimates I gather from various sources before the definitive data is on the BKG website:
Prelim annual results 21 June
£ sum of dividend announced 17-Aug
X/D 24 Aug R/D 25 Aug
Trading Statement released 4-Sep
AGM 5 or 6-Sep [TBC]
Payable date 15-Sep
This is E+EO/work in progress, and I'd be happy if anyone has anything more definitive :)

The figure of 99.76p for the div is incorrect. Due to the buy-back activity we know it's going to be materially less than that. The last estimate here derived from the RNSs re the buy-backs up until 4th July was a div of 69.42p.

[garycook] 10/7/2017 03:53

Looking at BKG Financial,s page here.ADVFN,are showing a 24/08/2017. Final XD date with a 99.76p Dividend payable on 15/09/2017.Can anyone throw any light on this,because after reading the Final results statement from 21/06/2017 the Final dividend amount will not be declared until 17/08/2017 ?

[1gw] 07/7/2017 09:00

Pidgley put not withstanding, I've taken a tranche off the table there to free up funds for elsewhere.

[fenners66] 04/7/2017 23:46

Unless it was blackrock that sold...

[jrphoenixw2] 04/7/2017 08:08

+140k on 30 June
+125k on 3 Jul [3172>3204, Avg 3183.92]

Treasury stock = 'The Berkeley Group Holdings plc advises that as at 30 June 2017, the total issued share capital consisted of 140,157,183 Ordinary Shares of 5 pence each.
The Company holds 2,668,472 shares in Treasury.
Therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 137,488,711.
These figures exclude the [above two purchases] which are yet to settle into Treasury.'

As buy-backs reduce the number of voting rights, a side effect is a notification from Blackrock that has gone from 9.98>10.02% holding of tot. voting rights. Let's hope that doesn't force them to sell a slab...

[raffles the gentleman thug] 29/6/2017 14:58

Hee hee - well spotted the double negative !!!

[catswhiskas] 29/6/2017 14:45

If that was to happen I reckon there would be some very angry shareholders and the share price would tank back to 25 quid

[dr_smith] 29/6/2017 14:45

RTGT I suspect too many "nots".. I would not be surprised if 2nd "not" was unintended ;-)

[raffles the gentleman thug] 29/6/2017 14:38

In fact would not be surprised if motivation for buybacks at this lofty share price was not for 69 year old Pidgeley to unload another 20% of his share holding

[1gw] 29/6/2017 14:35

Well if they're still buying on valuation grounds, and I haven't seen any comment from the company to suggest otherwise, then I fully support it. If the management believes the company is materially undervalued and has cash available to buy back shares, that's got to be good, hasn't it? Provided of course that we have faith in management's ability to value the company.

Maybe the management couldn't convince the board of the undervaluation case when the share price was at £24-25.

I certainly wouldn't expect them to use cash to buy shares of peers on a relative value basis even if they believed there was a relative undervaluation in peers.

[raffles the gentleman thug] 29/6/2017 14:27

Well said - I could not agree more - they had ample opportunity to buy shares at £24/£25 or more and it's ridiculous now paying this price when the company is in fact trading on a 10% premium to peers like TW on 2018 numbers

[this_is_me] 29/6/2017 14:18

What is good about spending our money to buy shares at high prices? I like to buy shares (or shopping)when they are cheap not when they have gone up in price.

[1gw] 28/6/2017 09:20

Nice to see the company buying back up to 3276p yesterday. That's quite a jump from the previous buyback top price I think.

Presumably this is still being done on valuation grounds rather than simply to enhance eps.
i.e. this statement from the December interims:

"This recognises that, at certain price points, the Board is of the opinion that the Company is materially undervalued and share buy-backs will be in the best interests of all shareholders"

If so, very encouraging.

[dbensimon] 26/6/2017 09:42

Very achieveable

[2350220] 26/6/2017 09:15

Getting very close to that tough Resistance of 3400, which seems to have been an important level in the past year and a half.
It would be great to blast through that level with some conviction.
Just wishful thinking on my part.
John

[jrphoenixw2] 21/6/2017 14:25

Here is a quite surprising turn re: the Grenfell Tower disaster; or perhaps not considering the Pidgeley family background.

Excerpt:
'Sixty-eight flats in £2bn luxury Kensington block to be given to Grenfell Tower families. A number of Grenfell Tower families are to be housed in a £2bn luxury development, which boasts a private cinema and swimming pool. Brand-new flats in a Kensington High Street development have been bought for those who lost their homes in the blaze, according to the Evening Standard. The City of London Corporation is acquiring the 68 flats as part of the response to the tragedy. A spokesman told the Evening Standard: “We are ready to do everything we can to help the victims of the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower.” A spokesman for the Berkeley Group, which owns the development, confirmed to the paper they were finalising plans to rehouse Grenfell Tower residents. The deal was brokered by the Homes and Communities Agency on behalf of the government.

[raffles the gentleman thug] 21/6/2017 14:25

BKG just sold 68 flats in its Kensington Row development to the Government to rehouse families from Grenfell Tower disaster

[r ball] 21/6/2017 08:50

Ftalphaville today worth a read

[jrphoenixw2] 21/6/2017 07:58

Their last buy-back was 7th April*. That coincided with the highest price paid to date at 3100p. Maybe we won't see further div erosion unless/until we get back down there...


Calendarised list of RNSs
* The last RNS re: Notification of buy-back: