Canadian General Investm... Share Discussion Threads

[asmodeus] 08/1/2010 21:36

Have to say this does seem strange, Munin. I'm not good at currencies, but assuming $1.65:£, you should have got £363. Perhaps Skyship or Washbrook can explain the anomaly? You appear to have had 17.5% deducted.

[munin] 08/1/2010 21:07

Yes, C$0.50 per share.
I have a small holding of 1200 shares in my ISA, and have today found that the dividend has been now credited to the account, but only as £299.14.
This implies that either Halifax have robbed me on the exchange rate, or there was some sort of witholding tax applied. Which would surprise me, given that this is supposedly a Capital Repayment Dividend. Though I guess it is possible.
Would anyone know how these dividends should be treated within an ISA?

[washbrook] 07/1/2010 09:08

I have followed this Investment Trust for years.
The spread is rather large that is the only reason I have never bought.
The graph is the performancre of CGI(candlesticks and CYN(City Natural Resources- green)BRWM-blue(BLACKROCK WORLD MINING)The latter two stocks that are in my portfolio.
-------------------------------------CLICK GRAPH TO ENLARGE



-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chart from the 2009 bottom

CLICK TO ENLARGE
-----------------------

[asmodeus] 07/1/2010 08:16

January 6, 2010


Canadian General Investments: Investment Update - Unaudited (6th January 2010)


TORONTO, CANADA - Canadian General Investments, Limited (CGI) reports on an
unaudited basis that its net asset value per share (NAV) at December 31, 2009
was $19.24, resulting in a one-year NAV return, with dividends reinvested, of
44.0%. This compares with the 35.1% return of the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite
Index on a total return basis for the same period.


The closing price for CGI's common shares at December 31, 2009 was $15.83,
resulting in an annual market return, with dividends reinvested, of 82.9%.

[skyship] 30/12/2009 17:20

CGI looking especially good value at the moment - trading at an arbitrage discount of c.3% to the Toronto price; and, more importantly, at a 23.6% discount to NAV. A 50% retracament of the fall would take us to 1030. Perhaps the Board are considering measures to reduce the discount...


free stock charts from www.advfn.com

[hectorp] 26/8/2009 12:53

Net asset value (unaudited) per common share: | $ | 16.97 |
+-------------------------------------------------+---+---------+
| Closing market price per common share: | $ | 13.25 |
+-------------------------------------------------+---+---------+
| Discount to net asset value per common share: | | 21.9% |
+-------------------------------------------------+---+---------+

[washbrook] 13/12/2008 13:51

On 7.12.08 NAV C$12.55= £6.747( at 12.12.08)£5.07 share price 19.2 discount to nav.

[washbrook] 31/10/2008 12:05

On the 27.10.08 Net Asset Value is $14.08 which converts to £7.04724(31.10.08)
-----------------------------------------------------
IOM $10.99-$11.03
£5.52173-£569255



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------£/CAD

[iomhere] 30/10/2008 21:37

Tighter spread on the Toronto exchange (TSE:CGI), 10.99-11.33.

[munin] 30/10/2008 21:20

490-590?????
What sort of thieving spread is that????

[washbrook] 19/10/2008 12:28

------------------------------------------------
Net asset value (unaudited) per common share: $ 13.97
Closing market price per common share: $ 10.30
Discount to net asset value per common share: 26.3%

£6.80081 net asset value
£5.01420 Share price
The above are the conversion rates but the share price is £5.45

[toriel] 11/3/2008 15:34

...and, since I am at my computer all afternoon, a final point. The discount to net asset value at the moment is nearly 20%, which is greater than it has been for some time and quite a bit larger than most UK-based ITs. Another reason to buy.

I should add that, since the price of this company is effectively determined on the other side of the Atlantic, not here, there is no chance that anything I say will affect the price, so you can assume my comments are genuine, not a futile attempt to push the price along!

[toriel] 11/3/2008 15:26

I might add that part of the reason I am bullish about Canada is that its economy is increasingly decoupled from that of the USA. I lived in Canada for many years, so know the country well, and am particularly taken with its mix of high tech industry and tremendous natural resources.

Canada cannot, of course, operate in complete isolation from the US, but it seems to me to have many of the advantages of the US with few of the disadvantages. I've always liked CGI as a fairly low risk way of participating directly in Canadian economic growth. Although it's slightly higher risk than UK-based trusts because of the currency, I think the growth story in Canada more than makes up for this.

[toriel] 11/3/2008 15:20

The weakness of sterling is important because this company is traded much more widely in Canada and the USA than in the UK. The price at which it trades here is thus largely determined not by UK demand for the shares, but by demand on the other side of the Atlantic.

If the price of CGI is flat in Canada, but the pound falls against the Canadian dollar, each dollar is worth more, so the shares priced in pounds will rise. Of course, the currency risk cuts both ways, so if the pound rises against the Canadian dollar, the value of shares in pounds will fall.

The influence of the Canadian market is evident today. This morning the price of CGI in London was flat, even though the London market was up. When Toronto opened, the initial Canadian price remained flat for a short time (and in London one could buy at the strange price of 11.069999 pounds as I, and someone else, did). Once the Canadian price moved up, so did London, with the latest spread being 1120-1150p.

This dual dependence of the price on the health of a foreign economy and on the value of sterling makes life interesting but, like leveraged buying, it has the potential to yield larger gains (and, of course, larger losses if both the economy and the currency go in the wrong direction).

[romi2nikki1] 06/3/2008 11:19

Just become aware of this trust, which gives exposure to Natural Resources within a developed economy. And Canada not likely to become depopulated because of drought( Australia).

Someone please explain why the "impending weakness of sterling" is good for U.K holders.

[one for the money] 26/2/2008 08:22

Toriel

I totally agree with your sentiments - long term hold for me

Regards
John

[toriel] 26/2/2008 08:12

I've now repurchased about half the stake in CGI that I sold last year at around £14, in a series of buys in the £11-£12+ range. Although I'm confident that in the long term this will be a good share to hold, it's more difficult to be sure where they will go in the shorter term, since so many factors can move the shares.

However, on balance I think the positives - what I see as the impending weakness of the pound, continuing demand for Canadian natural resources, the generally entrepreneurial feel of the Canadian economy, the decoupling of that economy from the Amercian - add up to more than the negatives - continuing worries about the world economy, fragile stock markets in general.

This is a bit like Bankers Trust Company or Electric and General - investment trusts that I've always felt comfortable with, alongside more racy (and risky) shares, even if they don't set the world alight. Canadian General has what seems to me to be the additional advantage that it is invested in the right part of the world. We shall see whether my optimism is justified in the coming months...

[toriel] 15/2/2008 09:13

Having resisted the urge to buy for some months, I've started repurchasing my stake in CGI with a few buys below £12 and a more recent one above. The weakness of the pound provides some insurance against large drops, I think, and the Canadian economy's reliance on natural resources is still a feature that I like.

It looks as though the Canadian stock market might go sideways for a while. However, I'm happy to slowly accumulate the shares in the expectation that in the long term the market will go up and the pound down, both movements giving the shares a boost.

[one for the money] 16/8/2007 12:03

Quite agree, and this latest market slump makes a mockery of any logical thoughts about where this is going - no matter how good the fundamentals.

You did well to sell when you did - IMHO It will have its day, but not quite yet.

Cheers
john

[toriel] 16/8/2007 10:48

Well, buying at £14 now seems a distant prospect. When the downturn began I sold my entire holding (gulp - I've only once before held such a large stake in one company) in stages at prices around £14, then very nearly bought it all back again just below £13. It shows how attached one can get to a share that, while the present downturn in the markets looks pretty nasty, I contemplated buying back into the stock at a price only 7% lower than when I sold.

I suppose I had in mind the idea that in a "normal" market the possibility of selling some shares, then buying them all back a few days later for 7% less money, would be a really good deal. However, whatever risks the current market involves, and there are many, I don't see missing a sudden surge of 10% up as being among them.

I've reinvested none of the cash I have from CGI, but I think that most, perhaps all, of it will go back into the company in due course. Whereas last month I was moderately confident that I'd be buying again at around £13, now I have no idea what would be the level at which I'd feel comfortable about buying. I'm happy with the idea of just having the cash in the bank for a month or two, since there's surely a far greater downside than upside risk at present.

[one for the money] 23/7/2007 15:19

All IMHO: It seems to be testing the resistance at around £15 set up in 2006. If it gets past it, who knows where it will go, but probably NAV will hold it. Maybe this explosive rise is overdone and it will fall back to about £14 before resuming the steadier progress.

[toriel] 23/7/2007 11:12

This has been a strong performer for me, doing better since January than almost everything else I hold, and is now my largest holding bar one. The fall of sterling against the Canadian dollar looks as though it may temporarily have come to a halt, but though the pound has strengthened against the US dollar I expect it to resume its downward path against the Canadian currency in due course.

CGI is still oputperforming the Canadian market, which has itself been strong. Having seen near 25% gains so far this year it's hard to imagine we'll see anything quite so strong in the second half, but I think the chances are good that CGI will be up from the present level in sterling terms by the end of the year. As raxzi points out, the discount is at 16%, which is high for CGI in historical terms, but also high in terms of the value that this share offers, I think.

I haven't bought CGI for the last six weeks or so, hoping for a brief fall to around £14, but this does not seem to me to be the time to sell, despite the climb from near £11 in March.

[raxzi] 17/7/2007 07:56

sp improving but still at 16% discount to nav. CAD has strenthened against the pound.