Merchants Share Discussion Threads

[talybibo] 08/7/2004 15:00

Maiden post on this board and I am a holder. Since MRCH publish their top ten holdings and ADVFN show the yields we can deduce that half MRCH's portfolio yields 4.38%. Given that they are paying 5.64% to us which, by the time we take into account say a 10% discount to NAV, effectively reduces to 5.08, it means they must be making 5.67% from the rest of their portfolio - all before costs and interest. Sounds to me that we might be paying for our dividend by an on-going reduction in asset value. Did you manage to find a copy of their fullunts on the internet Stupidboypike; I notice they have about 30% gearing; not all at 9% I hope!

All IMHO of course.

[stupidboypike] 07/7/2004 09:26

Hi All,

Just a quick warning Merchants has some pretty expensive fixed rate borrowing on board ( around 9% from memory). I was a great fan until I researched and found this out.

Best regards

SBP

[washbrook] 07/7/2004 09:10

It is now 314p to buy NAV = 334 discount 6%.
Underperformed FTSE by 6% since 27.2.04.YLD now 6.28%.
£10000 in Merchants income £628
£10000 in ING @ 4.7% net = £376
Next XD latter end of JULY

[a0002577] 27/2/2004 09:31

We seem to be in serious agreement here jhan66. The fact that they hold shell is a bonus in my view. There is a 50% upside to Shell and virtually no downside. Discount to NAV is quite low though. 335 pence to buy and NAV of 365

Rising Quarterly dividends of about 4.30 pence per share giving a yield over 5%

Taking capital and income return this would seem to be giving about 9-10% annual growth.

BSET might just be an alternative - similar yield but possibly a higher growth

[jhan66] 26/2/2004 20:53

watching this.
Results next month, 4p+ divi to follow.
What interest me more is the chart comparisons with FTSE indexes.
MRCH seems essentially to be a tracker. Has most of the ftse heavyweights, and clearly followed the indexes closely for a few years.
However, has come seriously adrift of FTSE 250 for about 10 months, underperforming heavily. -fair enough, more aligned to ftse 100? well since September ftse100 has gained about 8% while this share has stood still.

I'm a little concerned about exposure to Shell anong others, but still thinking of buying for a long term safe haven.
any thoughts?

[a0002577] 23/2/2004 11:45

No one else seems to have picked you up on this thread. It would seem to me that this could be one of the 'tracker type' constituents of a diversified portfolio. I am currently looking at putting 10% of my portfolios into such investments - and am looking at BSET (50% upside and good dividends), WTAN (serious discountto NAV and new approach to management coming up) and this one. Any further suggestions really welcome.

[washbrook] 08/10/2003 12:32

At 3.10.03 320.4 nav 342.9 discount 6.56%.
XD 8.10.03 pay 12.11.03 4.3p

[washbrook] 08/10/2003 12:28

This Investment Trusts fits in well with a group of 6 or 7 Investment Trusts.
Has 4 dividends per year.
Price at 6.7.04 £3.14 NAV £3.32 yld 6.28%.