Guinness Peat Share Discussion Threads

[nod] 19/3/2009 20:12

yes, good timing indeed. well done.

[nod] 13/3/2009 09:22

That looks like good timing, swiftnick.

[swiftnick] 05/3/2009 13:43

Topped up this morning. Just felt that the discount to NAV was getting silly, plus in time to get the 1p dividend.

[nod] 05/3/2009 03:29

record date for 1p dividend is 13 March

record date for bonus issue looks like 8 June

The Company is seeking shareholder approval at the meeting to be held on 21st May 2009 to effect a bonus issue, whereby shareholders will receive 1 bonus shares in addition to every 10 shares held. If approved, the expected ex-entitlement date will be 8th June 2009.

[nod] 27/2/2009 19:18

Investment company GPG's principal operating subsidiary Coats was affected by the economic downturn with a loss of £4m, Sir Ron said.

That arose from an unusual circumstance where tax of £20m exceeded the net profit of £16m because of country mismatches. There was no immediate solution other than a corresponding offset in future if and when loss making units returned to profit.

Coats would continue to face difficult trading conditions during 2009, but may have some relative advantages from its geographic coverage and its technological superiority over weaker competitors, Sir Ron said.

The £50m annual net loss compared with a £42m loss in the six months to June and a profit of £129m in 2007.

"However, all those figures are largely meaningless for present analytical purposes as they contain `exotic' accounting entries which distort actual performance."

[nod] 27/2/2009 19:09

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Guinness Peat Group Plc, a London- based investment company, posted a full-year loss after writing down the value of assets amid a global plunge in stock values.

The loss of 50 million pounds ($71 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31 compared with a 129 million pound profit a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement today.

Guinness Peat, run by New Zealander Ron Brierley, had total assets of 2.01 billion pounds as of Dec. 31 including Coats Plc, the world's largest thread maker, and stakes in companies such as Capral Ltd., an Australian aluminum fabricator. The value of investments is falling after stock markets in the U.S., Europe and Australia slumped to two-year lows last month.

"A number of portfolio writedowns have been necessary as a consequence of the global financial crisis," Brierley said. "Many of these will ultimately recover."

Guinness Peat shares fell 9 cents to 60 New Zealand cents at the 5 p.m. market close in Wellington. The stock trades publicly in New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.

Guinness Peat will pay a 1 pence-a-share dividend and plans a one-for-10 bonus share issue.

[nod] 28/1/2009 19:49

ENN has been suspended. GPG is the largest shareholder in ENN with 45m shares = 9.3%

GPG may want to participate in a restructuring of ENN. Perhaps take a bigger share for a cash injection?

[nod] 08/1/2009 23:16

The market update was no great surprise. GPG obliged to mark down most of its listed investments and make a paper loss of £35m

GPG invests in turnaround and/or distressed companies and most of those have seen severe share price falls over the past six months. GPG gave a list of all their investments and current valuations, which is an unusual move.

They also reiterated their aim to return funds to shareholders in 2010 - markets permiting.

[nod] 22/12/2008 20:03

I see GPG is likely to cash up another of its investments, It owns 13.6% of accounting software MYOB which is being acquired for AUSD $437 million.

I reckon that's a clear 100% profit for GPG on its stake acquired with the sale of Solution 6 to MYOB (although it's always hard to calculate the profit after various deals).

[nod] 17/11/2008 21:36

GPG warns of Coats weakness
By DAVID HARGREAVES - BusinessDay.co.nz | Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Guinness Peat Group says it is bearing up well in the face of the global turmoil - but warns that its biggest subsidiary, the threadmaker Coats, will be affected in the second half of the year by weakness in its operating markets.


GPG, chaired by Kiwi investment veteran Sir Ron Brierley today released its "interim management statement" covering the period from July, which is a statutory requirement of its listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The company said that despite the continuing fall in worldwide stock markets, its financial position remained strong.

Net asset backing per share as at September 30 was 66.19 pence ($1.78) up from 65.45p at the June half-year mark. In recent times the company's shares have consistently traded at a far lower price than the asset backing. The GPG parent company had £292 million cash.

However, GPG said that for Coats, the decline in the European crafts market continued to be a factor. Management was still taking action to address the performance in the crafts business.

But, additionally, GPG said that Coats' performance in the second half of the year to December 31 would be affected by weakness in Coats' industrial markets.

In the half-year to June GPG reported a loss of £20 million due to the write-down in value of share investments. It has, however, subsequently sold its shareholding in Tower Australia for a massive profit - probably around $230 million.

In the first half of the year Coats' operating profit was the equivalent of $97 million - slightly down on the same period a year earlier.

GPG invited analysts and media to see some of Coats' operations in China in June - prompting widespread speculation that it would soon seek at least a partial sell down of an investment that currently makes up over a third of its asset value.

A prolonged slowdown in Coats' markets could hamper that.

Sir Ron has said that he will step down from the GPG chair in 2010.

[nod] 11/11/2008 19:02

GPG still buying into Ennstone (ENN)

Now hold 9.30% = 45,244,249 shares to become major shareholder
current price 4p
so GPG holding is 1.8m quid

Finncap brokers have a 2009 forecast on Ennstone of PBT 7.8m and EPS of 1.7
This gives a forward PER of 2.79

GPG obviously think they have found value here.

major shareholders of Ennstone

Name Amount % Holding
Guinness Peat Group PLC 45,244,249 9.30
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC 22,674,707 4.66
Legal & General Group PLC 39,046,380 8.03
Standard Life Investment Limited 15,146,418 3.13
Richelieu Finance 17,425,000 3.60
J Michael Johnston 16,182,938 3.34
Natexis Asset Management 23,570,474 4.85

[nod] 28/10/2008 23:19

Back in August (post 1) an analyst reckoned the Tower Australia sale would be "at least A$186 million."

Well, a number of recent articles give the figure twice as high. This is very good news for GPG's cash pile.

"The acquisition was announced last August that Dai-ichi Life agreed to buy 29.7% stake in Tower Australia from British investment company Guinness Peat Group for A$376.3 million (196.1 million euros). "

Tower Australia value on the balance sheet at 30 June 2008 was 109m pounds (136m euros). So this should be an extra 60m euros (48m pounds)

[rambutan2] 24/10/2008 00:16

nod, are you taking into account the ingg cnvs?

[nod] 23/10/2008 12:02

GPG appear to have faith in Inspired Gaming (INGG).

INGG look down and out but rumour is Iceland selling - FL Group owned 18%
Looks like GPG picking their shares up for 2p each



The fundamentals for INGG look unbelievable. Broker forecast profits of 14m and PER is now only 0.26

GPG have plenty of cash to pick up these distress sales. I'm tempted to buy a few INGG

[nod] 21/10/2008 11:58

The market cap here is now 420 million - less than half net assets and not much more than the cash - which I calculate is over 350 million after the Tower Australia sale (which had a balance sheet value of 109 million).

This values Coats, all the GPG businesses and their share portfolio at about 70 million.

Coats alone had a book value of 277 million.

The sum of the other assets at 30 June 2008 were 514 million.

[swiftnick] 27/8/2008 07:22

Interim results announcement at .

Revenue up 7%, small loss due to share portfolio writedowns of £35m.

Net asset backing per share at 30 June (before the sale of Tower Australia) of 65.45p against the current share price of 52.5p (a discount of 19.8%).

Sir Ron Brierley announces his retirement as Chairman in 2010.

[nod] 10/8/2008 05:47

Tower Australia sale
Guinness Peat Group will not reveal how much profit it will make on the sale of its 29.7 per cent stake in Tower Australia, but one analyst reckons it is at least A$186 million.

GPG first bought into Tower five years ago when Australia was a subsidiary of the New Zealand company.

It then helped to split off the Australian Wealth Management business in 2005 and in November 2006 separated the Australian and New Zealand businesses completely.

GPG New Zealand boss Tony Gibbs said the Australian business had got to a point where it was good time for GPG to exit it.
"Tower Australia is very much a company in growth phase. It's a very good business but has got to the point where we don't have much more to add to it. Dai-ichi certainly does. It has now got a very responsible parent. It will be good for Tower Australia."

He would not reveal how much profit GPG had made on the deal but said GPG had done very well out of both this sale and that of the Australian Wealth Management business.

Last year GPG sold its 19.2 per cent stake in AWM to institutional investors for A$267 million, booking a profit of A$172 million.

But it seems profits from the sale of the Australian business may be even higher.

Gibbs said the profit would be added to the cash already on its balance sheets.
"GPG has always got good cash on its balance sheets. But in these markets any more cash is welcome to have."

He said GPG had no further plans to split off any other part of Tower New Zealand, in which it recently increased its stake to 35 per cent, and it was "not hanging out the for sale sign on the business".

[praipus] 18/8/2005 10:39

Browsing I note Sir Ron Brierley is a director of Australia Gas Light. Ecofin a utilities focussed Investment Trust hold 1,650,000 Astralia Gas Light shares. I hold Ecofin's capital shares ECWC which have a NAV of over £3.00 and trade at £2.33/£2.39 may be worth a look.

I also note that Utilico for which Duncan Saville is a director and Investment Manager and I believe formerly worked with Sir Ron Brierley also hold New Media Spark and over 46% of Ecofin's ECWC Capital shares!

[harry santiago] 05/8/2005 09:10

Nice to see GPG have got rid of most of the staveley businesses, not sure if 20m is alot for them but as you have mentioned slong the bal sheet value of these is next to nothing so its going to be all profit. It will be interesting to see what they do with Hall & Kay (the staveley fire division) they have been the most stable company within the staveley brand over the last few years, I would expect to see them being sold at around 15m-16m anything more would be a bonus.

HS

[slong] 06/4/2005 21:54

I have been in gpg for a while but the recent poor results have given me a positive outlook for the next year or so. 1) GPG have made a mint out of the De Vere share sale, which was post y/e and thus will be reflected in the next year 2) GPG have a habbit of writing off investments very early in their life cycle and hence when they eventually sell them on people are generally suprised that the sale generates so much asset value 3) the chairman stated that there were more sales to come this year, which following my point in 2) could lead to a large cash injection this year, now we all know that GPG will not return this cash to the shareholders, but I for one have alot of faith in them investing it wisely to produce a capital gain on the share price.

This one is a deffo for the portfolio as a share you dont have to watch every day, the board look after your investment for you!

All IMHO of course

[xenawarriorprincess] 26/3/2005 17:20

I've heard of quiet boards, but 6 months without a post is going it a bit....

Anyway my interest in GPG has been prompted by Shares Magazine suggesting 05 eps of 13.7p, 06 of 18.5p and 07 of 20.1p, suggesting a p/e of about 4.

Other sources are predicting eps of 4.67p for 05 and 06.

A bit of a difference!

But who has the correct figures.......

[nod] 26/10/2004 22:07

GPG continuing to take profits on its Charter stake.