Ip Share Discussion Threads

[spob] 26/9/2012 15:51

The golden rule is..........


Never buy anything the city is willing to sell to retail investors

wait for 12 months at least, before thinking about buying

there will be a lot of shares in DLG dumped onto the market at set intervals as lock up periods expire

[diku] 26/9/2012 15:39

They start by overpricing it to test general punter and fundies interest....with markets now weakening the price could well be lowered....

[spob] 26/9/2012 15:33

if it was worth buying they would have sold it privately by now

way overpriced at 3B

[jonwig] 25/9/2012 12:43

FT:

September 24, 2012 6:24 pm
Direct Line adds two directors to board

By Alistair Gray

Royal Bank of Scotland's insurance arm, Direct Line, has added another two directors to its board just days before it is expected to set out an indicative price range for its initial public offering.

Direct Line disclosed on Monday that Glyn Jones, chairman of New York-listed Aspen Insurance, had become senior independent director while Mark Catton, who runs RBS's UK corporate and institutional banking operations, also joined the board.

Mr Jones's appointment comes after he stepped aside as chairman of Towry, the wealth adviser, this year. The former Gartmore and Thames River Capital chief is also a former chairman of Hermes Fund Managers.

Mike Biggs, who was appointed chairman of Direct Line this year, said the appointments were compliant with the UK's corporate governance code. They give Direct Line 10 board members, up from six at the start of the month.

Direct Line made the disclosures on Monday as analysts from the 12-strong syndicate of investment banks handling the stock market launch pitch the business to institutional investors this week.

A prospectus is expected to be published within days. RBS will sell a stake of at least a quarter in the first tranche but could sell more depending on investor appetite, people involved said.

The part-nationalised lender is hoping the business will be valued at about £3bn, they said, which would make it the biggest flotation of a UK company since Standard Life in 2006.

Several leading institutional investors have warned that the home and motor insurer could fetch considerably less than this sum – in part because RBS must sell it to comply with state aid rules.

[jonwig] 20/9/2012 07:50

FT:

Banks handling the flotation of Royal Bank of Scotland's insurance arm are to charge less than normal as they seek to breathe life into a moribund market for stock market launches.

The banks stand to earn less than £20m – to be split between a 12-strong syndicate of institutions – from the sale of the first tranche of shares in Direct Line even if they raise £750m as hoped, people familiar with the matter said.

more ...



The £750m raise is 25% of the expected £3bn ceiling valuation .

[jonwig] 19/9/2012 19:25

All the retail brokers seem to be into this, (getting their commission of course from source) and I've been contacted by some who shouldn't even know I exist!

If I apply I'll choose between TD and HL. Part of the decision will depend on how quickly the back office is geared up to allow selling early - I have to admit I might 'stag' it, something last heard of around 1995!

[hillbrown] 19/9/2012 17:46

tks for this. My interest registered.

[jonwig] 19/9/2012 15:47

Hi, Simon.

At the moment I'm thinking HMGov might take it on the chin and float around £2.8bn with a sizeable retail allocation. I might be tempted at that price.

That, rather than flog it off to a PE investor with the bad smell of loading up with debt and profiteering.

There's an imminent review of motor insurance which might be bad for the industry - should keep the price below £3bn.

[simon gordon] 19/9/2012 07:33

Hi Jonwig,

Cheers for setting up the thread, I am follwing it closely.

[jonwig] 19/9/2012 07:04

FT:

Bondholders are becoming more confident that Royal Bank of Scotland will successfully float Direct Line, even as people close to the process warn the bank is prepared to pull the deal if equity investors value the business at much less than £3bn.

The £500m of debt that the bank's insurance arm issued in April has rallied strongly since the start of last week – outperforming the market and pushing the yield down 69 basis points to 7.63 per cent.

Fixed income investors said this showed they were expecting the part-nationalised bank to overcome a languid market for initial public offerings and float the business within weeks.

The signs of confidence come even though several of the City's biggest institutional fund managers have cautioned they would demand a chunky discount to the £2.9bn price tag equity analysts have put on the business. One said £2bn would be a more appropriate valuation, given that RBS must ­dispose of the business under European state aid rules.

But one person close to RBS said that figure was "ludicrous" and another said private equity houses would step in at that level.

A third person close to the ­flotation said: "£3bn is quite a conservative estimate after the initial reaction. A lot of institutions are very keen to get a piece of the pie . . . This gives debt investors more confidence as it looks likely that this IPO will get done, rather than seeing the company go to private equity."

Christine Johnson, manager of the Old Mutual Corporate Bond fund, which holds the Direct Line debt, said: "It's done very well thanks to the prospects of a listing. The worry was that it would end up in private equity hands, in which case it would possibly trade down quite heavily."

Mike Amey, portfolio manager at Pimco, which does not hold Direct Line bonds, said: "If they list, it would end up with being a less levered company than if it is bought by a private equity fund."

More ...

[robow] 18/9/2012 17:47

IP Group pumps £500,000 into health webcam spin-out
IP Group, which commercialises intellectual property from universities, is tapping into the telemedicine market by backing a spin-out which has developed technology that can use a webcam to monitor patients' vital signs.
FTSE 250-listed IP is to invest up to £500,000 in Oxehealth, which has been spun out from Oxford University's Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The company has created software that can be used with a webcam to track patients' pulse, breathing rate, and oxygen saturation without the need for any other hardware.
IP's investment in Oxehealth illustrates the burgeoning digital health, or 'telemedicine', market, which aims to develop devices that allow patients to accurately monitor their health and potentially spend less time in the doctor's surgery or hospital.
Brian Horsburgh, head of life sciences at IP, said the Oxford technology could be used in hospitals, but could also be used to monitor patients remotely in different environments, such as care homes, and transmit data back to doctors.
He added that the technology could allow patients to be monitored at a lower cost and could also have consumer health applications, such as monitoring people using a gym. "It could be transformative," he said, adding that IP had been attracted by the "commercial potential" of the convergence of healthcare and IT.
Professor Lionel Tarassenko, who developed the technology at Oxford University, said: "Our research has transformed the ubiquitous webcam into a non-contact sensor for monitoring the most important vital signs."

[praipus] 18/9/2012 12:21

Another moon shot chance being loaded up :-)

[jonwig] 15/9/2012 12:05

Telegraph:

The state-owned lender said it plans to sell at least 25pc of the company in an initial public offering, which analysts believe could value the company at about £3bn.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (The)

Direct Line is the largest home and motor insurer in the UK and includes other brands such as Churchill.

RBS had to either sell or float the business by 2013 as a condition of its £45bn taxpayer bailout during the financial crisis. The bank will sell another stake in the insurer next year to take its holding down to below 50pc.

Paul Geddes, chief executive, said: "Our people have worked hard in recent years to transform the business in order to take advantage of our distribution, scale and market leading brands. Our work to maximise these advantages is by no means complete and we have a clear strategy that spans distribution, pricing, claims and operational efficiency.

"We look forward to being a listed company and are more committed than ever to providing customers with excellent products and service levels, whilst seeking to deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders, targeting a 15pc return on tangible equity from ongoing operations."

Direct Line confirmed it had paid RBS an £800m dividend during the the first half of the year and a further £200m earlier this month.

The second payment came a handful of days before Direct Line unveiled plans to cut 5pc of its workforce - or 891 jobs - to save £100m in annual costs by 2014.

Results for the insurance business show pre-tax profits fell 43pc to £106.5m in the six months to the end of June, after £109m of restructuring charges.

Analysts say the business would break into the FTSE 100 if listed. Members of the public are to be given the rare chance to buy shares in an echo of the "Tell Sid" privatisations of the 1980s.

Despite this, a sale still remains a possibility with Andy Haste, the former chief executive of RSA Group, known to be leading a private equity consortium looking to bid for Direct Line. Mr Haste is understood to be working with private equity firms Blackstone, Bain and Advent.

Barrie Cornes, analyst at Panmure, said: "We believe that whether or not it succeeds will depend on it being realistically priced. Strong brands, good market share and reasonable targets are all positive but it operates in fiercely competitive markets where regulation is increasing.

"In our view the valuation should be in the £2.7bn to £2.9bn range to get away - Direct Line is no Admiral. The ditched IPO of top three German insurer Talanx a couple of days ago highlights the need for a realistic valuation. Lastly we think that there is still a good possibility that private equity will make a play for Direct Line which would make an interesting dilemma for RBS and the UK Government."

[jonwig] 15/9/2012 08:04

This week, Royal Bank of Scotland, the part-nationalised bank, announced a formal intention to sell at least 25 per cent of its Direct Line Insurance arm, which will also include the Churchill and Green Flag brands, in an initial public offering that will be the biggest this year.
. . . . . .
Equity analysts say the IPO could value Direct Line at about £3bn. RBS must divest control of the group by the end of 2013 because it is receiving state aid.

Paul Geddes, chief executive officer of Direct Line, said the group is targeting a 15 per cent return on tangible equity from ongoing operations, and plans to pay out 50-60 per cent of post-tax profit as a dividend.

The next stage in the process will be the publication of a formal offer prospectus, a listing timetable and an indicative price range.

[jonwig] 15/9/2012 08:00

I suspect this will be "priced to go" later in the year, and may revive that old hobby of stagging a new issue.

And simply by registering an interest you can have the chance to win stuff in a prize draw.

I'm using this thread to keep tabs on progress with valuation, calendar, etc.

For what it's worth, I think Green Flag offers a better deal than AA or RAC.

Documents already available:

• Intention to Float
• Company Factsheet
• Prospectus

[pleaty1] 04/9/2012 16:20

I'm just happy to see shares mopped up by the big ii's. Every % in their hands should be for the long term and less free float means more upward pressure on the share price

[praipus] 04/9/2012 16:04

Agreed no one on the shareholder register looks even remotely likely to launch a bid. But they may well be able to find some more cash if IPO were to need it to increase the number of IP technology venture's invested in so far and there by increase the chances of an Apple, eBay, Microsoft, IBM "cancer cure/wonder drug" type discovery.

Thus good news for long term type PI's. Rubbish for short term jockeys because the MM's and HFT's will game you out of your money.

[peaeff] 04/9/2012 15:27

Something along those lines but the price isn't indicating an imminent bid.

[hjs] 04/9/2012 15:17

INVESCO now holds 29.34%. share price is down today. My understanding is that INVESCO can buy and hold 29.99%, thereafter they have to bid for the company. Is this correct?

[pleaty1] 30/8/2012 08:34

Another 3.3mill shares passed from pi's to institution.

[pleaty1] 21/8/2012 17:18

Thanks for the link praipus, very interesting. Certainly could explain the trades today. If genuine investors hold onto their shares the computers will have to work harder to mess with the price.