Great Portland Estates Share Discussion Threads

[roger-lawson] 06/4/2012 12:58

I certainly would not want Graphite to wind up. But the issue of cash commitments to "funds" can be solved. Some of these funds are actually Graphite managed funds, so why not simply do the investments directly instead? It's really a very bad business model having to keep lots of cash in reserve so as to meet future "commitments" when it could otherwise be returned to shareholders and is generally not generating much return. Dunedin Enterprise tackled this issue in several ways because they got into the same bind - I strongly recommended you look at what they decided to do. This gives the details: www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201111010700322118R

[roger-lawson] 05/4/2012 14:52

The board said the same think at last years AGM about the discount, which in my view is simply not good enough. Increasing the dividend might help a wee bit but it's still going to be a pretty low yield. I am writing to the Chairman pointing out that if others can tackle high discounts in a vigorous manner (such as Dunedin Enterprise, and what Laxey Partners want 3i to do), why cannot Graphite?

Roger Lawson, Chairman, ShareSoc

[killing_time] 05/4/2012 14:22

All looking pretty good, nice rise in the dividend for this year.

[18bt] 05/4/2012 07:35

Decent results this morning. NAV at year = 569.4. Plus disclsoure that disposal of Data Explorers and IPO of Ziggo have added 6.3p per share. So current discount = 32%. Board says that it is aware of the discount problem and is working on it, but I think they will need to look at a significant tender like SVG. Very happy to hold these and may top up as the PE industry is still working on a lot of realisations.

[skyship] 14/2/2012 11:54

Roger - yes, LMS has already agreed voluntary liquidation. Bearing that in mind they are surprisingly cheap, especially as they have 34% of the current Mkt Cap in Cash & near-cash (19.5p versus 57p sp).

With an NAV @ 91p and allowing for a liquidation value at 80p (a good discount surely), then assuming a 2.5yr term to 30th Jun'14 (also sufficiently conservative), the Gross Redemption yield = 15.3%. One can play all sorts of games with the anticipated payout and the Term to produce varying GRY returns; but I prefer to shoot for a conservative figure to underwrite the investment proposition. Hopefully we will soon receive a Strategic Update to give us an official handle on my projections.

[roger-lawson] 14/2/2012 10:26

APEF is an Aberdeen managed fund, registered in Guernsey I think (at least that's where they hold their AGMs. Knowing Aberdeen, they would make life difficult for any challenge though. LMS is already in wind-up mode I think (surely that was voted through recently). But I'll certainly take a look at those two and PIN.

[skyship] 13/2/2012 18:38

ROGER - would have posted more earlier, but was being called for lunch!

I am a fairly recent convert to the current attractions of the Private Equity sector - see the PE thread.

My interest was stimulated by great success with HPEQ in 2010/11 - a small PE company which finally waved the white flag and went for voluntary liquidation - see the SL thread.

As we all know - Timing is everything in this game; and it looks as though the increasing number of PE companies providing tenders and buybacks will provide very attractive turns for 2012. The NAV discounts had fallen to absurd levels, so raising new money is impossible and new investments are difficult to recommend when the Market immediately discounts them by 30%, 40% .... or even 50%.

I am plagued by the need to grab profits; and have already done so in DNE, PEQ & SEP - still hold APEF, LMS & PIN.

APEF looks particularly attractive @ a 46% NAV discount. They have a Continuation Vote next year. There are three large holders controlling 68% - so hopefully they will see sense from liquidation. Aberdeen will need to substantially close the discount to make a pretense of concern for shareholder value over and above their concern for management fees!

[skyship] 13/2/2012 13:26

Roger - see the PE thread and the SL thread.

Actually at the moment APEF is the clear winner for action - 46% NAV discount!!

[roger-lawson] 13/2/2012 12:15

As a holder of shares in this company, I do not see why the directors allow it to trade at such a discount to NAV. Some buy-backs or tender offer should certainly be done. I did raise this at the last AGM and was advised the discount issue was being considered but nothing obvious has been done since.

This company is very similar in some ways to Dunedin Enterprise who did an about-face recently on this very issue, after coming under some pressure.

Perhaps we should organise a campaign to get the board of Graphite to take action on this matter?

Roger Lawson, ShareSoc

[18bt] 08/2/2012 15:37

Wassup? some disposal I haven't spotted?

[18bt] 21/12/2011 12:11

IMS on 8th Dec. NAV now 564.6p per share. Discount to NAV now 37%. SVI announced a tender offer for its shares on Monday at a 10-15% discount to NAV. IF GPE were to do the same, there should be good upside to these. The level of over commitments to funds is now down to a very low £14.1m once the new bank facility is taken into account. It must be worth the company using some of this facility to launch a share buy back at these levels. The market cap is only £258m, so a tender for 10% of the share capital would result in a good uplift in NAV per share for the remaining holders.

[killing_time] 07/5/2011 15:49

Chairman's statement out, dividend 2.25p same as last year.
Outstanding commitments at 31 jan totalled £173.7 million. After the sale of Wagamama, Kwik-Fit and Preh available liquidity should increase to £94.3 million, this should therefore be sufficient to meet draw downs for over 18 months even if no further realisations are achieved.

As a result of the companies high level of liquidity, we would expect to accelerate the existing investment programme through a combination of new fund commitments, secondary fund purchases and selective direct co-investments.

April 2011.

[killing_time] 09/4/2011 11:28

It is possible of a special divi as they have raised a lot of money in a short space of time,but if i remember rightly they have a lot of forward commitments.This does put us in a strong position so i would expect the share price to close the gap with the nav.

[losos] 08/4/2011 15:26

Sold Preh today (Something in Germany!)

Over £30M in the bank - can we expect a special divi??? Any thoughts anyone?

[pejaten] 25/3/2011 12:50

Totally agree. Sounds management. Consistent track record. 3 years these were trading at a premium to net assets!!!!

[18bt] 25/3/2011 07:21

Announcement this morning pushes NAV over 500p on disposal of Wagamama and Kwik Fit. WOuldn't want to be in either when consumer incomes under so much pressure. Discount still 34%. Far too high IMHO, so targeting upside of 10-15% on the share price

[18bt] 09/12/2010 07:06

IMS today points out the still massive discount to NAV on these 38.3%. Other PE trusts have narrowed their discounts significantly - this one looks great value.

[18bt] 08/11/2010 17:39

All PE investment trusts are showing continued strong momentum. GPH still standing at abigger discount than some still 33% rather than apparent single figures appearing elsewhere.

[18bt] 28/10/2010 18:32

Bolstered by good IMS from SVG today.

[biggest bill] 25/10/2010 09:36

I see that Graphite have put Park Holidays up for sale at an asking price of £200m. If they can get that price, it would be a useful addition to the net asset value.

[rambutan2] 11/10/2010 23:03

One of GPE's...

[18bt] 11/10/2010 15:08

Topped up my shareholding as I don't think the market is reflecting the recent interims and other PE share prices like Electra have started to recover.

[biggest bill] 06/10/2010 14:25

I have finally bought back into Graphite after three years out of private equity trusts. The discount to asset value is simply too high. I expect the discount to narrow from 40% to 20% over the next couple of years as the discount starts to return to its long term average of 15%. Even if there is no rise in net asset value at all, my anticipated fall in the discount equates to a share price rise of 33%.