Cable & Wireless Share Discussion Threads

[dickbush] 21/6/2012 10:01

A public company gets into trouble and the share price falls. The potential bidder can short the shares (not illegal as far as I know) to further the decline and upset institutional shareholders. Then, when the CEO gets fired, the potential acquirer gets one of its top men to apply and, hopefully, with a sparkling CV, gets the CEO post. The potential bidder, with a repectable lag, bids and, hey presto,a very cheap bid is successful. Troublesome counter-bidders put off, of course. Trebles all round!

Of course, I would never suggest that that was what happened in this case. Just an idea for merchant bankers to contemplate in future acqisition strategy.

[loganair] 20/6/2012 14:19

Don't often see as a single trade???

13:28 37.75p 80,000,000 £30,200,000 Sell NT

And just to make a few pennies???

13:12 37.86p 2,430,845 £920,328 Buy NT

[irenekent] 20/6/2012 06:08

Hopefully at some stage the directors of CWW will be called to account for their utter incompetence.

[andrewhbruce] 19/6/2012 21:58

Well I was one of the lucky ones. Thanks to you all for your contributions,
particularly RMS. I have never been on such a journey. Monday 8.03 12.00p
flashed across my screen as the offer price for a millisecond!!

All the best for the future, more QE should be good for us all??!!

[tonsil] 19/6/2012 18:50

i'm out except for some long dated Dec 32p Call options
it is a fabulous deal for VOD and an ok deal for me. Sorry for you long term holders.

[djwr100] 19/6/2012 17:43

Well, I'm just poorer. And out today. End of.

[rovernut] 19/6/2012 17:00

Glad that's over with! I made a terrible loss too after holding for over 10 years and trying to average down all that time. Fortunately my Rolls Royce, United Utilities and Intercontinental Hotels made up for it.

As Djwr said...... well done grim! Another lesson learned the hard way.

Over and out.

[careful] 19/6/2012 12:25

just sold out.
a 15% profit in a couple of months.
never doubted the outcome after tata walked.
mone on, lots more juicy plums out there.

[topvest] 18/6/2012 20:07

Well Cable & Wireless has been a very poor investment for me; it's a poor deal for holders, but 38p cash is better than nothing. Vodafone have done their shareholders proud as this must be a great deal for them. At least I own VOD as well, but that won't offset my loss here. Oh well, glad to be out of this dog when the cash comes in!

[topvest] 18/6/2012 20:07

Well Cable & Wireless has been a very poor investment for me; it's a poor deal for holders, but 38p cash is better than nothing. Vodafone have done their shareholders proud as this must be a great deal for them. At least I own VOD as well, but that won't offset my loss here. Oh well, glad to be out of this dog!

[djwr100] 18/6/2012 14:33

I'm surprised at the outcome. As usual.

Big loss for me. Well done grim. ;-)

[rogermauricesmith] 18/6/2012 14:28

Well that's it.
A small profit for most of us and huge losses for long term holders - a terrible outcome.
UBS pulled it off for Vodafone but it is obvious that there have been gross shenanigans behind the scenes.
Vodafone somehow has managed to scare all other bidders off - goodness knows how but it has done it.
If anyone's interested there is still tremendous values in Cable & Wireless Communications. And doubtless Vodafone will be looking to see if it can pillage there next. But it will find a much more robust management than it did at CW.

[buywell2] 18/6/2012 13:43

I don't think VOD shareholders approve much

[ddrysdale99] 18/6/2012 13:37

So out of the proxy votes, only 1.23% voted against. Surprised....

[7kiwi] 18/6/2012 12:58

It seems Orbis was out-voted.

58.77% of all shares had been voted by proxy in favour of the agreement, and these represented 98.77% of votes cast.

So, Orbis, holding about 19.06% of shares, would push the total votes cast over the 75% threshold, but would not be enough to scupper the deal, as they couldn't get to a simple majority of those votes cast.



Will be interesting to see how the court meeting has gone, if anyone attended.

It seems they only allowed 15 mins for this meeting, which seems woefully inadequate given the strength of feeling against the deal on this thread.

[skinny] 18/6/2012 10:28

LONDO)--U.K. telecommunications operator Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC (CW.LN) Monday secured approval for an agreed 1.04 billion pound ($1.63 billion) takeover by mobile giant Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN) after its largest shareholder, Orbis Investment Management Ltd., swung behind the deal.

Bermuda-based investor Orbis, which has a roughly 19% stake in C&WW, had been holding out until an investor meeting later today to disclose its intentions after earlier casting doubt on whether it would support the deal. Its support paves the way for the deal to close, allowing Vodafone to use the C&WW business to create a fixed-line business in the U.K.

Vodafone's 38 pence-a-share offer required the support of a 75% majority of C&WW's investors.

C&WW earlier Monday said it had received support for the deal from just under 59% of its remaining shareholders, based on proxy votes cast ahead of the meeting, but that it was waiting to hear what Orbis's intentions were.

[loganair] 18/6/2012 10:07

CWW said it had received acceptances worth 58.77% in favour of the 38p a share offer, prompting Orbis to withdraw its objections. Under the scheme of arrangement Vodafone needs 75% approval from shareholders.

Orbis, which owns 19.06% and is the company's largest shareholder, had opposed the deal on the grounds the price was inadequate, and had suggested it might seek to remain as a minority stakeholder.

"Orbis to be able to block the bid was reliant on other shareholders to turn up and vote no, and that wasn't likely to happen," Espirito Santo's Brown said.

Vodafone will use Cable & Wireless's fiber network to boost its fixed- line system in the U.K. and relieve the strain of surging data traffic on its own mobile-phone network as customers increasingly adopt smartphones including Apple Inc.'s iPhone and devices running Google Inc.'s Android. After initially keeping Cable & Wireless separate, Vodafone will move to combine the British network with its own infrastructure.


Well That all Folks!!! CWW/Vodafone have got more than the 75% required for the scheme of arrangement to go through.

I wonder if some time in the not too distant furture one will be reading an RNS on the Vodafone thread that they have sold the Indian side of things to Tata???

[loganair] 18/6/2012 09:51

The share price now stable at around 38p, is now indicating the deal will go through.

My Orbis doing what they've being doing over the past few weeks have allowed many mm's, hedge funds and bankers to make lot's of money tading the ups and down in CWW share price.

Naturally somewhere down the line Orbis will have a good number of IOU's to use in the future.

[careful] 18/6/2012 09:05

38p.
is that a fat lady i can hear singing?

[2pups] 18/6/2012 08:44

Its been so long now but can anyone remind me how much Vodaphone have offered and the timescale. Will we be offered Vod shares or just a cash offer? thanks guys.

[jacks13] 18/6/2012 08:34

loganair
12 Jun'12 - 11:28 - 5371 of 5402

Looks like you might be right, loganair. This deal should come under closer scrutiny, but it won't of course.

[warranty] 18/6/2012 08:19

One can only suspect something done behind the scenes to have such a massive change of heart. Looks impossible for VOD to secure the necessary 75% of votes cast today if Orbis voted against. Yet again snouts in the trough and sod the small shareholder.

[mikestamp] 18/6/2012 08:16

If Orbis hold 20%, how could, as they say, 'it eventually succeed' if they had voted against.