Blue Planet Investment Share Discussion Threads

[dendria] 10/1/2015 10:01

Still looking interesting kiwi. They may have done well with Friends Life & Catlin but will have taken a hit on their largest holding BNC this week. Be interesting to see next NAV.

[kiwi2007] 27/10/2014 23:46

These are starting to look interesting...lots of EU financials which, some say, are undervalued and due a bounce? Huge discount to NAV and decent divi (if indeed they repeat it).

However, seems difficult to find either an interim or annual statement to check what the charges are these days? Anyone please?

[malcolmmm] 05/9/2013 09:52

Looks like it is narrowing

[broomtree] 23/8/2013 23:56

Looking at this but pretty hefty spread @ about 10% (35p bid and 39p offer)? Has the money been made or will the discount continue to fall?

[malcolmmm] 30/7/2013 20:19

received the dividend yesterday

[malcolmmm] 16/7/2013 22:07

Does anyone know when holders will receive the dividend?

[malcolmmm] 15/7/2013 19:51

Still looking promising

[topvest] 02/7/2013 18:55

Yes, looks a bit better doesn't it! Slightly more optimistic, but costs are still too high, as is portfolio turnover.

[malcolmmm] 30/6/2013 22:33

dividends resummed, I expect share price will rise as a result

[topvest] 13/1/2013 10:16

This is all about management fees. They got out of bank stocks at precisely the wrong point and turnover their tiny portfolio several times a year which is ridiculous (and expensive)! In my opinion this is one of the worst investment trusts on the LSE. There is no reason to suggest that Blue Planet will change their spots. The only upside is for Ken Murray to sell out his holding or employ a professional manager of repute. Both are possibilities I suspect as Blue Planet can't be the most successful of asset managers given their dismal record here. In the meantime they keep skimming big investment management and administration fees! I still remember when I tried to sell this 5/6 years ago, but the sell didn't go through and I've been left with this rubbish ever since.

[ceaserxzy] 12/1/2013 23:59

I also emailed to the fund management, unfortunately without receiving any reply from them, to ask why they didn't buy back their shares when it was on discount of 40%, meaning they can spend 60p to buy 100 p NAV, a instant return on investment of nearly 70%, while they spent money to invest in companies like France telecom, which may never bring a return of 70% in many many years. To me it didn't make sense for them to have high borrowing in the fund to invest in fixed income, which at the moment is on very low yield and has the high likelihood of making capital loss as the low interest tide will turn sooner or later. Also I strongly suspect that the borrowing cost incurred may be way higher than the interest that they get from the fixed income they invest in, all in all making no sense except that a bigger gross fund asset will bring them more management fee, i.e. benefiting them the managers, not the share holders.

[ceaserxzy] 12/1/2013 23:50

The quality of the management has improved but still not perfect. Not sure why they recently moved away from Financial to invest in fixed income and other shares like ISAT, France telecom etc while all the financial stocks like BAC, GS, Barc, lloy are all flying. Their timing of getting in and out of stocks seems always out of sync with the market.

One stock they do get right though is their buying of Ford, which seems to be timed perfectly.

The other drag on this fund is the very high running costs, way too high at more than 5%. Only great performance can justify and absorb such high expense ratio.

[topvest] 12/1/2013 21:20

Yes, best outcome is to get a proper manager in rather than the existing team who are pretty useless in my opinion.

[topvest] 11/1/2013 21:24

Every dog has it's day - yes, quite a re-rating. Would be nice if something good happened to this one as it's been a disaster for far too long!

[malcolmmm] 11/1/2013 20:25

Something going on here?

[brucie5] 08/11/2012 13:16

Can someone tell me more about this share - it's not listed on Trustnet. The chart is a disaster - until last five months when it showed a fairly emphatic bottom. The mcap seems tiny at 12.8m, and the discount is substantial. Any info gratefully received.

[malcolmmm] 09/10/2012 10:07

With NAV around the 40p mark they still seem cheap to me

[ceaserxzy] 24/8/2012 18:49

In fact the best way forward for this company is to divest and wind-up to return whatever value left to its owners. Considering that the investment that they are holding are very liquid and can be sold off easily, this will realise a nearly 70% gain to its current market value.

Unfortunately I cannot see this happen as the directors and managers will continue to use this little vehicle to milk the little shareholders. I fail to understand why Mr. Murray is in it as he must have lost a fortune on his 25% holding over the years, unless he has got a really really big pay in one way or another from the company.

[ceaserxzy] 24/8/2012 18:43

There is indeed great value in this little investment trust, only if one can trust the directors and the managers not to destroy the values or line up their own pockets. It is difficult to understand why they invest money in companies like BP, Total etc while they can spend one pound to buy 1.7 pounds of value if they buy back their own shares, that is an instant investment gain of 70% while investing in companies like Total and BP may not earn a return of 70% in ten years!

[malcolmmm] 25/6/2012 09:36

Again a good trade at around 16p and still a ggod buy at the preent price, big buy 150k at 25p

[topvest] 20/6/2012 20:55

Agreed - they keep buying and selling continually which is a mugs game. It's a dog. Almost sold at the top, but didn't manage to sell them. Regretted ever since. The worst investment trust I own by some margin!