Gresham House Share Discussion Threads

[ntv] 01/5/2007 07:52

last year all but a a couple of dierctors got voted out
see last years rns
but then got reappointed
it was all to do with a "supposed" takeover approach which one shareholder said there had been and the board denied
the new 29% shareholder that bought at £7 must have bought for some reason and it wasn't to watch the shareprice go down
i have a feeling there something might happen at this years agm and it will interesting to see how votes are cast

i personally think the board could tell shareholders alot more about its property activities
listing individual properties and vacancy space along with rental income
this would probably lead to a much higher valuation for the company

[therealdon] 01/5/2007 07:38

Thanks NTV - that makes things look even better. Might buy some more as soon as I have some cash available. Could you expand on the takeover issue. Thanks

[ntv] 29/4/2007 23:57

sale of sports field for £2.3M has given a decnt £800k profit already for current half and helped reduce debt
debt will be substantially reduced when planning permission is granted for residential housing
£8.2m will be enough to eliminate short term borrowings at the very least

[ntv] 29/4/2007 23:48

worth buying on any decent dips and a decent chance of a takeover as well

[therealdon] 27/4/2007 13:42

... MMs seem to be interested in acquiring shares and are prepared to pay more than the bid price (696p instead of 690)...

[therealdon] 27/4/2007 13:21

I believe that this will still perform strong in the near feature.

My main reasons are:
- the commercial property side of the business should benefit from the current positive trend of the UK economy
- further important developments are in progress (eg. new site in Speke, development of Dorking site).
- interesting portfolio of investments
- significant discount on the NAV
- general positive sentiments pushing the markets higher (DowJones already over 13k, FTSE approaching 6.5k)

Touching the 8.00 pounds level before summer, possibly even 8.50 in a favourable market?
Any feeling?

[ntv] 27/4/2007 11:12

check out PIA

[ntv] 27/4/2007 10:45

for interesting companies buying in their own shares check out SLP and PEN

[ntv] 27/4/2007 10:43

here also you have an active shareholder who really like to buy the company
they currently hold 29.99%

[ntv] 27/4/2007 10:40

check out WSE as well standing at huge discount

[therealdon] 27/4/2007 08:24

Thank you rmillaree, the scenario looks good to me and with a good up trend .. got 1k shares yesterday... see how it goes...

[rmillaree] 26/4/2007 15:08

Hi TheRealDon

I think it is quite common for companies that have investments in shares/other companies to trade at a discount to NTAV. Probably due to liquidity problems and the associated spread on such small companies.
For example they have (when i last looked) over £2 miilion worth of shares in Hallin Marine which is a decent sized chunk of the company. If they started selling these shares on the open market i would suspect the HMS share price would probably take a hit.

However the only have £13 million of investments when compared to a market cap of 32 million. So the way i look at it i would only apply a large discount to 1/3 of the value of the shares. I think property companies tend to trade much closer to TNAV than investment companies.
On this basis the discount larger than i would expect it to be. Having said that when i bought the shares a year or so ago the discount was nearer 40% than 25%.
I thought the outer of value would be the REIT spinoff but it looks like this won't happen as one of the main shareholders is against the idea.

The think that i like is the property side.

GHE have £40 million worth of property as compared to the market cap of 32 million (Partly due to borrowings and partly down to the discount to NTAV)

so if they can return 7% pa (mix of income and capital appreciation lee interest paid ) on the property this works out at approx 10% pa return on the price we have paid. With any profit from the hsares thrown in for free.

To be honest i would probably rather that they sold all the shares (when a decent price is available) and invest that in commercial property too. However the investments that the board have made have done pretty well since i have been holding and it looks like there may be more to come if there is some flotations in the pipeline, so i guess i shoudln't be too unhappy with the present situation.

[therealdon] 26/4/2007 14:35

Thank you Rambutan, I was with GHE for a few years until about 2003 then I had to sell. Now I am thinking of coming back and trying to refocus the picture. Thanks for your help

[rambutan2] 26/4/2007 13:28

ghe is rather opaque, to put it kindly. it's illiquid, not followed by brokers, has an odd investment remit, is controlled by a small number of shareholders etc etc. in fact last year's agm bust up rather summed things up - i'm still not sure where things now stand.

however, that means that it's not necessarily efficiently priced - which means an opp for the likes of us who are prepared to accept a bit of risk and that corp governance may not be of the best.

i'm sure that one day something will prompt the discount to close up, but when and what is pure guesswork. it was noteworthy that cgt took up a position in the last few months. its manager is very experienced and risk averse and patient.

[therealdon] 26/4/2007 13:04

Thank you Rambutant, the discount is really consistent. Any idea about the reasons why such a discount and what would prompt a realignment between Sp and NAV?

[rambutan2] 26/4/2007 12:41

yesterday's ft had it down as 932p, which sounds about right if look at the mkt since the 902p as quoted in the results to 31/12/06.

[therealdon] 26/4/2007 11:33

NTV, do you have an idea of the current NAV?
Thank you

[muffster] 25/4/2007 22:55

And still falling

[ntv] 25/4/2007 09:44

stands a huge discount to nett assets
over 25%

[ntv] 20/4/2007 07:56

shame the dividend wasn't increased further to give a half decent yield

[ntv] 20/4/2007 07:55

if they can get planning to turn speke into retail the value of such a site must be a tadge higher than present ;-))

[ntv] 20/4/2007 07:53

asset value had grown as i expexted to around £9
should add another £1 this year and the same again the following year so prospects are good imho

[mw8156] 19/4/2007 19:34

Only disappointment was that only 35% at Speke is let.

[rmillaree] 19/4/2007 09:35

Very nice set of resuts, i was toying with the idea of offloading these "at the right price" but i have decided to continue holding unless there is a decent rise in the shareprice.

Market value of property portfolio up £6.3 million to £40.5 million* Value of the investment securities up by £571,000 (at £13.3 million) despite
net reduction of investments during period of £924,000.

Net asset value at 31st December 2006 was 902.4p against a figure of 775.7p
at the end of 2005 representing a two year rise in basic net asset value of 44%.

Our site in Vincent Lane, Dorking has been included in the Accounts based on
existing use value of £2.9 million. However we have agreed in principle to sell
this site to a leading residential development company, conditional on
residential planning being obtained, for the sum of £8.2 million. A successful
planning application is expected to be obtained within two years.

Mount Burgess Mining has just
announced that it has received an independent report indicating significant
realisable base metal resources which could amount to an in-ground gross value
in the order of US$981 million. In the event this proves correct, your Company's
4.5% holding in Mount Burgess, which cost £351,000, should materially increase
in value.

[kelvinford] 06/3/2007 18:19

Hi Erstwhile

Hold TRT and IGE outright, both have great potential. Like the investments in GHE. Given time they will not be there just to make up the numbers.

Kelvin