Foresight Share Discussion Threads

[janeann] 13/12/2010 22:25

well id sell mine to a rival bidder.

[felix99] 13/12/2010 15:16

138 are sells - getting quoted that on selftrade. TDW 137 .

Don;t need cash at present so may as well wait for the 140 . Will hold off for a few days for acceptance on my lots. Always a chance a competitor might try and buy 25% to make life hard for SL.

[dasv] 13/12/2010 14:49

"On 7 December 2010, the boards of Standard Life plc ("Standard Life") and Focus
Solutions Group plc ("Focus") announced that they had reached agreement on the
terms of a recommended cash offer to be made by Standard Life for the entire
issued and to be issued share capital of Focus.

Standard Life is today publishing and posting to Focus Shareholders (and, for
information only, to participants in the Focus Share Option Schemes) a document
(the "Offer Document"), containing the full terms and conditions of the Offer,
together with the relevant Form of Acceptance.

The Offer is open for acceptances until 1:00 pm (London time) on 31 December
2010. "

It's open for acceptance -and I think it's highly unlikely it won't go through.

[envirovision] 13/12/2010 14:30

I have a feeling those 138 are buys. Looking at what the market makers having taken on the books at 1.35-1.37 its quite a large chunk of the company, meaning its slightly easier for someone to counter the bid if they wanted to. Not that it zould hppen though?

[davidosh] 08/12/2010 11:37

The only way that the company is not going into the hands of SL is if a third party or rival bidder now decides to buy 25% of the company to have a blocking stake. It would be pretty obvious if that starts happening.

[nicedude1976] 08/12/2010 10:08

you shouldn't have been buying at the top.

btw, how much % has standard life got now ?

[sportbilly1976] 08/12/2010 09:35

back from day off...

gutted at the derisory offer put forward & accepted by the BoD....fiduciary duty - my @rse!!

just worked out at 140p I make a loss on my purchase too!!

[jakleeds] 08/12/2010 08:39

Given how cheaply they went, I'm still surprised Mastek didn't bid given they said they had up to 50mill to spend on acquisitions.

[interceptor2] 08/12/2010 07:43

I'm surprised that an analyst from Broker Shore Capital, when making a statement that the acquisition wasn't cheap for Standard Life, doesn't give his reasoning.

At least when posters here expressed a bullish view re - FSG, most backed that up with a reason to why this was the case in their view.

Regards......

[cockneyrebel] 07/12/2010 20:02

Well I put a chunk of the cash from FSG and stuck it in FENR this am - was up 3p at the time - closed up 16p so already up 4% on pay out :-)

I can't see that holding for the 140p when you get 136.5p today is worth it when the market is on the up like this but depends how you invest I guess.

CR

[simon gordon] 07/12/2010 19:28

Interesting perspective:

IFA Online - 7/12/10

AT8's Mark Loosmore asks if Standard Life's purchase of tech provider Focus Solutions will bring it closer to the banks and if other distributors will be happy with the deal. The latest proposed takeover in the technology space was announced this morning and it was a slight variation on the M&A activity seen to date; namely a Product Provider - Standard Life - acquiring Focus Solutions, one of the leading Financial Services e-commerce companies.

[dasv] 07/12/2010 10:56

yeah it could have been worse - e.g. an offer UNDER the share price or talks off and no other bidders.

[cockneyrebel] 07/12/2010 10:28

Lobbeb the 55K out my portfolio @ 136.5p - reckon I can use the cash better than wait for the sale to go through, what with a breakout in the US looking likely imo.

I'll sell those in my pension when I need the cash.

I suppose at least it's a cash agrred bid rather than learning it was shares today, or the bid was off.

CR

[lomax99] 07/12/2010 10:18

Most disappointing, anyone have a realistic timescale to payout - end January? Thanks.

[dasv] 07/12/2010 10:11

I had high expectations here. FSG had become my biggest holding by value. I'm quite disappointed - when I logged on a bit late today and saw the price spike I assumed we were off to the races. Still I remember looking at FSG in the 40-50p range and being put off by the 10% spread. Although I did buy some at about 70p I bought much more in the 130's. I guess we are going to have our money tied up to wait to avoid the spread on sale completion.

[simon gordon] 07/12/2010 09:56

Money Marketing - 7/12/10:

Standard Life is to acquire technology firm Focus Solutions for £42m.

The offer, tipped by Money Marketing last month, values Focus at a 33 per cent premium to its share price on November 8, the day before it disclosed it was in talks with an unnamed bidder.

Standard Life says Focus' technology platform, which includes point of sale software, will combine with its wrap platform and threesixty's support services offering to provide a full solution to advisers as well as helping to grow its retail bank and direct business.

Standard Life group chief executive David Nish (pictured) says: "Combining our award-winning Wrap platform, the threesixty proposition and Focus technology enables us to offer a market-leading customer experience, built on a full set of supporting processes and technologies to distributors, alongside our traditional product and investment offerings.

"This strengthens the overall position of the group as the UK market for our propositions and services develops further over the next two years leading up to RDR and beyond. These solutions will also help to grow our retail bank and direct-to-customer distribution."

Focus chief executive Richard Stevenson says: "While we will continue to deliver best-in-class solutions to our target market, going forward our customers, employees and our business will have the benefit of the support and reach that being part of the Standard Life Group will bring."

Focus' half year results, published today, show a £1.12m profit before tax for the first half of 2010, compared to £0.15m for the first half of 2009.

[felix99] 07/12/2010 09:07

As Simon says I assume the 57% acceptances are because they have had an auction between all the bidders and this is it and the best price.

At the end of the day paying £40m odd is just the lazy way of getting the software.

Any software house I guess can write the same stuff ultimately from scratch and development cost might be £20m + time to do it and leg up for sales if it becomes the standard.

I guess any Inidian software outfits have the programmers ten a penny and the premium to have first mover advantage here may not be worth it. If target is Far East Focus may need sa fair bit of development for that mkt anyway and presuambly they won;t have first mover over there.

Lets not be greedy I got tonnes bought in 70's and 80's.

I remember Chieftain - though tthat was stolen at £2 odd I think it was but in hindsight before mkts imploded it was sale of the centuiry and directors timed it beautifully .

In my view SL don;t understand how to run the business they know very well - so gawd knows how they will run FSG lol.

I assume the attraction for the Board as well is they keep their jobs etc and autonomy whereas any other software house coming in will have a cull of some of the top guys I dare say.

As for another bid - well someone could come in and try and buy 25% to block SL. They would then have to either buy a majority stake without proper control or walk away and sell to higher bidder by letting their bid lapse.

So will hang on to mine for time being.

[ukinvestor220] 07/12/2010 08:52

Shocking !!

[envirovision] 07/12/2010 08:45

Maybe Simon. Easy money for the market makers this morning. No way im selling, pointless giving up 3.5p or more plus dealing costs, also just in case, you never know.

[simon gordon] 07/12/2010 08:10

Enviro,

I don't think there will be another bidder as they've been under quasi auction for the last four weeks. No software house has come in with a blockbuster bid, so maybe they're not as hot as we all thought.

[envirovision] 07/12/2010 08:07

The statement seems as if its been written by standard life for its own shareholders.

I wonder if FSG are going to issue their own statement to us about the takeover?

[mikeja] 07/12/2010 08:03

Under the Companies Act 2006 the directors have a statutory,fiduciary duty to act in the interests of the shareholders,hard to see how this has been carried out.

[envirovision] 07/12/2010 08:01

Still mustn't gruble i've made ten grand out of FSG in the last 3 months and if there are other people interested a second bid could emerge before the dots and t's are done yet.

[chester] 07/12/2010 07:49

owenski - exactly my thoughts, 2 robberies in one week, CPSP and FSG.