London Finance & Investm... Share Discussion Threads

[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 20:21

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

[russman] 27/9/2021 16:51

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

[russman] 02/9/2021 05:50

Crikey share price moved up for a change.

[oooff] 04/4/2019 16:56

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 18:50

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 12:58

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 05:47

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 12:04

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 18:11

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 14:25

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

[topvest] 30/9/2013 19:05

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!

[rolo7] 30/9/2013 07:20

great results here today, todays nav around 62p, results 3 mouth out of date now! Bit concerned where the cash has gone big loan repayment!

[markt] 14/3/2013 20:16

I dont think they have any interest in reducing running costs.....

since the costs pay the staff costs at City Road offices....
which are providing, imo, various functions and services for the Marshalls. Marshall family trust funds and Marshall controlled companies

(and since 2000 the co. has shown no interest in reducing costs, instead when income struggled to pay the costs at WESP they issued a shed load of new shares, to increase the income base; and not the other way round)

and imo there are wages and expenses paid to at least 2 of DM sons at City Road
(there are 3 in total)

(a Marshall controlled company rents the apartment that LFI sold, perhaps used by son(s) or family ?? or DM when in London ?)

it would be illogical imo for the Marshalls to want to reduce these costs, since it would imo be reducing payments/benefits to themselves !!

and they want to maintain the City Road offices and its functions, not reduce it or close it.

(the listing cost for WESP is small, ISDX is cheap, maybe 10k, adviser is only 6k per year....out of 300k charged the listing costs are peanuts imo)

I note that LFI services part has seen reduction in income recently.....so that puts more incentive/pressure to "increase" the costs for LFI/WESP in order to support/shoulder the fixed costs rather than the inverse imo...otherwise they probably have to reduce staff numbers a little

[topvest] 10/3/2013 09:03

Interim results were reasonable I thought. They are sitting on £2m of cash - wonder what they will do with that! Maybe they should buy Western Selection and reduce the combined running costs?

[markt] 22/2/2013 12:41

...and the prize for the most useless RNS of the year for the LSE goes to

London Finance & Investments plc !!

----

And also for intentionally keeping shareholders in the dark for basic information
the winner is also

London Finance & Investments plc !!



they intentionally give the finger to the requirements to inform shareholders..and provide transparency

may as well run this LSE listed company out of their garage

[markt] 05/2/2013 16:12

general shareholders own over 50% of the company.....the Marshalls only have around 44%...

if 'we' are not happy we can call an EGM and kick 'em out....or propose any changes we think would be beneficial.

but so far I think there have been no posts indicating any support for an EGM.....

[callumross] 30/1/2013 12:25

Share your frustrations Markt but wht can we do? We are powerless as they control all the aces. If we are not happy, they will just say we should sell up? The assets are not for us to enjoy anyway.