Melrose Industries Share Discussion Threads

[minerve] 03/9/2018 10:13

getting

If I remember correctly, all you do is make childish comments about my restaurant choices and MEANWHILE's one time mistake, no?

Where are YOUR significant contributions here?

I am not a Melrose investor so it isn't of importance to me what Melrose do anymore.

I read a lot about aerospace and automotive sectors and could provide much better input than Brexit, but why should I? Some of you morons don't deserve it.

It isn't all roses like Melrose would lead you to believe. There are pension fund issues and the automotive sector is starting to see reduced earnings forecasts, supply chain disruption and cost base inflation. Go find out for yourself, it really isn't difficult.

[meanwhile] 03/9/2018 10:04

Today the campaign to recover the form of 'brexit' the majority voted for gets underway in earnest.
It starts with the exposure of Mrs May's so called 'Chequers proposal' for the work of deceit that it is. I can't recall a single speech by Mrs May in which she
expresses any confidence in the opportunities to be presented by a UK outside the EU. She hasn't made any. All she declares is that we're leaving. All part of the masterplan to keep us in. And with this absence of any positives from her, she instructs that wimp of a Chancellor to forecast how awful it's going to be when we've left.

She has never had any intention of taking us out. The masterplan is to provide such a poor deal that we decide we'd better just stay in. Some think the masterplan was drawn up with input from Barnier. This would make Mrs May a traitor by any definition.

All brexit supporters should try their best to spread the message that the new campaign is not obstructive but is working towards providing a brexit team who will carry out the will of the majority and take us outside of the EU.

[gettingrichslow] 03/9/2018 10:02

I think it's more a case of:

Brexitplus = Provides lots of relevant articles about MRO, saving us all the time and trouble

Minerve = Childish comments and nit-picking about the info B+ provides, interspersed with Vince Cable-esque political rhetoric

[minerve] 03/9/2018 09:23

Thank goodness for that. I was really worried about Malaysian employment! LOL

Large companies are always employing people, it is the delta that matters. Anyway Brexit, have you actually thought that maybe in some areas they need more people because some of their sectors are currently growing.

Dear me.

BrexitPlus = Mr Simple

[brexitplus] 03/9/2018 08:28

GKN AEROSPACE GETTING RID OF PEOPLE??!!!! These are just the more Senior positions being advertised in Bristol. Recruitment also in the USA (235 jobs), and more jobs in Malaysia.

Looks very positive to me!!!


Head of Operations

Technology Leader

Procurement Operations Manager

Graduate Program Development Manager

Machining Research Lead

Change & Manufacturing Engineer

Principle Technologist (Ind 4.0)

Data Management Technician

Maintenance Engineer

Financial Planning Analyst

Senior Technology Engineer

Plus another 25.

[brexitplus] 03/9/2018 07:21

Hi Yertiz

Great sporting weekend. Wins for Gloucester, England, Bristol City, Tonbridge FC (my childhood team) and Lewis Hamilton.

Bristol was great. Really buzzing. We weren’t too far from Ashton Gate when City scored their first goal. And weather fantastic.

Where in Cornwall are you?

[minerve] 02/9/2018 21:07

Take away Pizza Hut instead. :)

[gettingrichslow] 02/9/2018 17:48

You treat yourself to a Bill's Minerve - living the dream!

[minerve] 02/9/2018 14:56

Brexit was waxing lyrical about Aston Martin.

From the FT - "Aston Martin is a private equity wolf in sheep’s clothing"

Hope you know what you are doing Brexit if you invest. I think it might be too much for your simplistic brain to take on board. Same for gettingrichNEVER.

LOL

I might go to Bill's this week. I used to live in Bristol. It gets boring once you live there for 11 years. Harbourside - been there done that, got the T-shirt umpteen times. Manchester/Sheffield has much more going on.

[brexitplus] 02/9/2018 07:18

Hi Yertiz

By all accounts Cipriani played well in a familiar Gloucester side. New signings from South Africa not playing yet. Saw one of them in Cheltenham last week - huge second row!!! And Curran almost England’s best batsman - Boycott and Vaughn both seem to think so. Might be close.

Yes, interesting week coming up.

Enjoy Cornwall. We are off to Bristol today. Long walk and lunch at the Harbourside. Wife’s family owned a lot of property there once.

[yertiz] 01/9/2018 22:27

Hi B+, we bought our new second home last week and have escaped from all news and sport this weekend in North Cornwall trying out and getting to grips with our purchase - what a delight it is to drive and live in! A few teething problems soon ironed out, but the problems at Argyle will not disappear so easily, I fear! How did Cipriani fare? Such a wasted talent and flawed character, could have - should have- been one of the England greats, at lest with the Test match young Curran is doing himself and England proud!
Looking foreward to this week in the markets, IG group flying, Victrex displaying all the characteristics of a momentum stock, others in my portfolio hitting new highs and recovery of n place for Plus 500 with inclusion to FTSE 250 to look forward to. And of course Melrose reporting on Thursday- ‘tiz all happening. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. :)

[brexitplus] 01/9/2018 21:39

Hi Yertiz

Great start for both Gloucester and Exeter. And with Bristol beating Bath last night doubly special. Pity about Plymouth.

Had an excellent day listening to the Gloucester match and absorbing Test Match while gardening under clear blue skies. Couldn’t have been better.

[minerve] 01/9/2018 11:56

brexit

I am surprised you wouldn't have assumed Melrose were looking at pension liability already. It is a big issue for GKN. They have one of the worst in the FTSE 100. BT are the same. Without a piece of the cake sale, Melrose will continue in a trading range until the pension issue is resolved.

I have benefitted greatly from these pension liability transfers. Some of my holdings make a mint from it.

I like this comment: "Sources close to the situation said on Friday that Melrose would only strike an agreement to offload the GKN fund, which has liabilities of about £500m, if it could secure an attractive price."

Melrose PR seem to be adept at reminding the chimps of the obvious!

[brexitplus] 01/9/2018 10:42

Sky News has learnt that Melrose Industries has opened talks with a number of insurers specialising in pension risk transfer (PRT) transactions about offloading the smaller of GKN's two retirement schemes.

The discussions have been going on for several weeks and are understood to involve firms including Aviva and Scottish Widows, which is owned by Lloyds Banking Group.

Sources close to the situation said on Friday that Melrose would only strike an agreement to offload the GKN fund, which has liabilities of about £500m, if it could secure an attractive price.

In a statement to Sky News, a Melrose spokesman said: "Melrose has pledged to inject £1bn into the former GKN pension funds.

"That pledge will be met regardless of any other measures, such as buyouts from specialist providers to enhance the pensioner covernant.

"Any deal would depend on pricing."

Even if it does proceed with a deal, Melrose will still hold the larger of GKN's two pension schemes, which became a flashpoint in the hostile takeover of the 250-year old automotive and aviation group earlier this year.

Melrose promised to inject up to £1bn of cash into the GKN schemes, which collectively have roughly 32,000 members.

The pledge included a formula which guarantees the retirement pots 10% of the proceeds from any disposal of GKN assets and 5% from other Melrose businesses.

So-called PRT deals have soared in popularity in recent years as blue-chip companies such as the music group EMI, ROLLS ROYCE, and WPP, the marketing services group, have sought ways to cap their financial obligations to past employees.

[meanwhile] 31/8/2018 12:18

You either love him, or you hate him, but this is his view today :-

Brexit? The real enemy lies within, says FREDERICK FORSYTH

EVERY day and in every way (as Monsieur Coué did not say) we are threatened and threatened and threatened. You cannot open a newspaper nor switch on the telly but another disaster is solemnly laid before you - and all based on the presumption that we will not bow to Brussels and call off Brexit.
These Jeremiahs promise us no plane will fly, no ship will sail, no lorry will roll and no surgeon will address his scalpel. Why? Because we will have run out of everything.
Remember the Millennium Bug? It was very similar.
The same straight faces, the same ponderous loons assured us that at a few seconds after midnight on New Year's Eve civilisation as we knew it would come to an end.
The computers would all crash because they could not cope with the end of a millennium and the start of another.
The moment came. What happened? Damn all.

Why did the Jeremiahs not resign en masse and in shame? Because they never do.
It all happened again, in miniature, during the Campaign of Fear which preceded the referendum vote.
If we voted Leave, said George Wiseguy Osborne, recession and slump would be our immediate portion. The reverse happened. Investment went up.

Start-up companies increased (a sign of optimism). Employment went up (ditto). The pound weakened but that was good for exports.
Now it looks as if the euro is heading for trouble in a big way. If we leave as the majority still wishes, and we prosper, will the Jeremiahs resign or be fired? They most certainly should.
I hope someone is noting every disaster-prediction and the source of it.
A year after Brexit, if we are booming with worldwide exports going through the roof as seems likely, I hope today's doomsayers are given a firm kick in the tailored rear ends.
The fact is that all negotiations start with the two parties poles apart.
But with goodwill and the triumph of reason they move towards each other with matching concessions until victory with a concordat.
But if one side does all the demanding and refusing and the other side all the conceding, that is not a negotiation but a capitulation. That is what Michel Barnier demands.
It is also what the British appeasers, quitters and quislings advise.

Once again the disaster script is waved before all our eyes. Scuttle to Brussels or face utter British ruin.
Even the massively concessionary Chequers plan has been rejected. So why do the Tory weaklings go on advising it? It is dead.
My own prediction is simple: no, there will not be an equitable (evenhanded) new deal to endorse a mutually beneficial relationship because Barnier will not have it.
His agenda is simple: Britain must suffer agonies as a deterrent to any other dreamer of freedom. So..? So there will be a year of dislocation and damage as we negotiate a raft of blistering free trade treaties with the rest of the trading world.
Then we surge out of the swamp and back to the high ground, trading very profitably with numerous economies we were required to turn our backs on for the past 50 years.
But defeat? Ruin? Eternal poverty? Check the record. We Brits have been around for a thousand years uninvaded. Often threatened, never defeated. Often assaulted, never beaten. Sometimes knocked back, never brought low. And so it will be this time if only we can throw out the weaklings, the appeasers, the capitulators.
Our real enemies are here at home, many in high office, living off hard-grafting taxpayers, strutting, whining, moaning but rarely picking up their own tab.

Ten years from now I think they will be looked back on as the appeasers of 1938. They have the same DNA. Concession before sovereignty.

[gettingrichslow] 31/8/2018 11:43

So 'hyper intellectual' that you can't even do simple maths or understand how a rights issue works! And you keep thinking £250k is a 'fortune'! Might have been in the 1970s...

[meanwhile] 31/8/2018 11:39

I think Minerve is absolutely correct in this argument. Let's not fool ourselves into believing that the Melrose boys are on a mission to save or even rejuvenate british engineering, secure jobs, spread wealth or any of those other mission statement phrases, like developing new products for a better world.

They are out to make money for their followers. The clue is in their strategy of 'Buy > improve > sell'. The 'buy' is an amount of money, the 'sell' is a bigger amount and the 'improve' justifies the difference.

We follow them because we hope that some of the money flows to us.

[meanwhile] 31/8/2018 11:23

brexit+,

I have never said I was a 'numerical genius'. I would never be so boastful.
All I have said in this respect is that I am of very high intellect, compared to your low, 3rd class rating, and that this 'hyperintellect', applied to the stock market, has enabled me to make a series of small fortunes.

Now please don't misinterpret these words.

[minerve] 31/8/2018 11:02

"Seem to remember that at Nortek a senior manager had already produced a plan, which he took out of his drawer at a first meeting, that Melrose accepted as better than their plan and it was used."

Anecdote time!

WOW amazing. What superhumans they are, taking on someone else's idea. How novel! Oh, wait a minute, isn't Melrose itself a concept stolen from somebody else? I believe it is. Copy cats, dirty rats.

[minerve] 31/8/2018 10:59

MEANWHILE

You are right, I have no idea. I could be completely wrong because of stereotyping, but I doubt it. The Three Amigos behaviour over the GKN takeover, and their poor display at questioning, telled me all I need to know, and want to know, about those miserable excuses for humans.

If we are to be successful as a nation we cannot afford to have charlatans like that running our companies. £40M each taken out is £40Mx3 that can be re-invested and spent on better things. Nobody needs that remuneration to make a company efficient or successful.

[brexitplus] 31/8/2018 10:29

MW. I would have thought that as a numerical genius this is right up your street. But of course, under new management after Melrose there is no guarantee of continued improvement.

However, just to indulge you, there is evidence from management in companies that were acquired that things were much better under Melrose than the previous management. Seem to remember that at Nortek a senior manager had already produced a plan, which he took out of his drawer at a first meeting, that Melrose accepted as better than their plan and it was used.

But as a long term investor I would have thought you would have known this. Either laziness on your part, which I believe the case, or lack of research.

Off to do my bit for society now. Taking a 90 years old GENTLEMAN for lunch at his favourite restaurant in Bristol. No not fast food. A restaurant with good food, real waiters and a good wine list.

[meanwhile] 31/8/2018 10:05

I suppose neither brexit+ nor Minerve know how well the various companies that have been through Melrose's hands are doing now. This would be a good exercise for someone who had the means & time to do it. Not me though. It might be an additional measure of Melrose's success, other than the pure money making.
We know of Brush of course, but what of the other FKI bits, and Elster (now at Honeywell), Dynacast, McKechnie.

[brexitplus] 31/8/2018 09:45

ROLLS ROYCE HISTORY. I thought I’d have a look at the history as I remember lots of problems in the 1970s

As you will see, the CONSERVATIVE government saved Rolls Royce, keeping the “useful” parts, selling BAC almost immediately, and RR cars later in 1980, essentially doing a Melrose. Rolls Royce has recently, through mismanagement, restructured with announced 4600 redundancies.

“In the late 1960s Rolls-Royce became hopelessly crippled by its mismanagement of development of its advanced RB211 jet engine and the consequent cost over-runs, though it ultimately proved a great success. In 1971 the owners were obliged to liquidate their business.

The useful portions were bought by a new government-owned company named Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited which continued the core business but sold the holdings in British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) almost immediately and transferred ownership of the profitable but now financially insignificant car division to Rolls-Royce Motors Holdings Limited. This it sold to Vickers in 1980. Rolls-Royce obtained consent to drop 1971 from its name in 1977.

The Rolls-Royce business remained nationalised until 1987 when, renaming the owner Rolls-Royce plc, the government sold it to the public. Rolls-Royce plc still owns and operates Rolls-Royce's principal business though since 2003 it is technically a subsidiary of listed holding company Rolls-Royce Holdings plc.”

So those holding Rolls Royce shares now can thank the CONSERVATIVE Government for doing the right thing and saving the company, and then letting them buy shares in it.