London Finance & Investm... Share Discussion Threads

[russman] 25/4/2022 06:54

No reason for this to be listed.

[topvest] 20/4/2022 20:18

Yes, indeed. It's still trading though, so didn't go bust. It was just WSE that took a big hit, I think.

[smithie6] 20/4/2022 19:20

Indeed

"In effect we contribute to the running costs of the Marshall family UK head office."

....& when 2 Marshalls were receiving dirs fees from investee cos & WSE/LFI then the annual return to the Marshalls from their money invested was pretty good,

for them !

[russman] 22/12/2021 06:05

Not sure why the Marshalls persevere with WSE/LFI; too much hassle / publicity.
They moved most of their empire into the UK decades ago for "political" reasons.
The family is based in Switzerland mainly for tax / anonymity.
In effect we contribute to the running costs of the Marshall family UK head office.
No real investment strategy.

[smithie6] 21/12/2021 16:29

I managed to double the value of my portfolio from 1 Jan 2020 to now

whereas the LFI share price (& I assume the NAV) is down ~10%.

Sometimes it feels like they are asleep.

[smithie6] 21/12/2021 16:24

"The strategy is simply not working."

Arguably the strategy is not to make capital gains

but

to pay a high % of return each year to the Marshall family
via wages & benefits

if my memory is correct they own ~40% of LFI but get a return of X from 100% of LFI & 100% of Western Selection

& when D.Marshall was younger he also collected dirs fees by sitting on some boards where LFI/WSE invest (eg. NBI)

although has their return reduced because D.Marshall has got older & has stepped down from some bods & sadly 1 son who was receiving dirs pay at different investee companies passed away.

The ownership structure of Western Selection lets the Marshall's control it without directly owning 1 share themselves !

[topvest] 28/9/2021 21:21

Same old rubbish results though. The strategy is simply not working.

[russman] 27/9/2021 17:51

Actually done something; was worried BoD had dropped off their perch.

[russman] 02/9/2021 06:50

Crikey share price moved up for a change.

[oooff] 04/4/2019 17:56

A lot of the recent trades, and there have been a couple of quite large ones, going through at 40p look to have been sells. I tried selling some with a limit at 39p which I left on all day recently after xd, and nothing happened. When I tried an instant online trade, I was immediately offered 40p.
I could sell over 10000 immediately online at 40p. The trade log is currently double counting a lot of the trades. The dividend is paid friday which will mean some small dividend reinvestment trades.
Anyway, currently seem to be an unusually narrow sell / buy spread. Seems a bit odd as xd and fif, bilb etc not really performing that well.

[smithie6] 23/1/2019 12:00

LFI & Western Sel.
main investments not done too well imo in last 6 months

Finsbury Foods. Bilby. Swallowfield

..each down 30-40%


& NBI ...long term it divided by about 4...
..in 2017-18...up from 70-90p to 150p...to fall back to 115p now..
...if only the nicely paid 'experts' (😂😂) on the bod had taken the big profits at 4-5 pnds/share
---

& the 'new' strategic investment in Bilby has been a non-event so far...

[topvest] 28/9/2018 19:50

Nothing much of interest in the results really. Same old story of mediocrity.

[smithie6] 12/12/2016 15:47

.....surprised to see that Marshall junior who was on the bod passed away at the end of Nov....even though he wasnt very old, under 40yrs old I thought...

Commiserations to family.

Phps a reminder to us all that we dont live forever...and should enjoy ever day/week....

[smithie6] 29/4/2016 13:58

While the Marshall thing is a negative factor the share price looks cheap vs NAV which has been in up trend for last 2 or so yeaes I think....mostly due to FIF price rise

Discount to NAV looks a bit big at the moment & FIF share price perhaps relatively solid now...so the big discount is phps unwarranted ?

[russman] 15/9/2015 06:47

I would suggest LFI are at a large discount for at least 1 big reason.
It is the same strategic issue Mr.M has had for over a decade, if not longer.

[topvest] 14/9/2015 13:04

Maybe time for them to be top-slicing FIF as I have done. That's the problem with their approach to be honest. They don't take a profit. Anyway these must be on a very big discount now given the strength in FIF.

[russman] 10/11/2014 22:29

I re-read the interim management statement.
The cash for the Finsbury Food rights is either from debt or selling the general portfolio.
Cash burn is too high for such a small company.

[smithie6] 01/10/2014 19:11

Russman
you have any comment on the high admin. costs for LFI ?

for the little or nothing that LFI has done in the last year...it looks excessive to me....

over 400k

(if you wanted to propose resolutions to the AGM..that you thought that most shareholders would support..I might have contact with someone with the votes to do that... if they wanted to of course
you can always send to me privately via my website e-mail if you wished)

[russman] 06/10/2013 15:25

Shipping forecast: Strategically narrow, Generally broad, Something may happen in the medium, Value in the long.

[topvest] 30/9/2013 20:05

Not bad results.

This comment is interesting...

"We believe our mix of Strategic Investments and a General Portfolio gives us
every chance of outperforming the broader market in the medium to long term."

They haven't managed this in the last 10 years, but might have done so if they sold all of MWB when the time was right!

Then again if they performed better you wouldn't be able to buy this and WSE at such a discount.

Happy to hold...just about!