Raven Prop P Discussion Threads

[montyhedge] 14/2/2023 16:45

Dividend tomorrow?

[drradcliffe] 12/2/2023 12:42

I agree keith95 I've always been somewhat reassured by the fact that directors and their friends/acquaintances hold large quantities of preference shares.

I assume Benn's efforts to build a market for the shares is so that the large holders in the background can acquire additional stock at today's very distressed price.

[keith95] 11/2/2023 20:16

"I had the feeling they would relist at some point. "

The risk is funny business with the Cyprus holding company but then again ... the founders have a lot of preference shares and I'm sure they are not keen on losing several million ....

.. and by the speed of Raven's move the transition to a Cyprus holding was planned well in advance.

[drradcliffe] 11/2/2023 14:11

I'm holding on to my preference shares as well. I've also made up the loss elsewhere, and actually bought more shares in the final days of trading. Obviously a complete gamble but I had the feeling they would relist at some point. Too early to tell whether that was money down the drain or not. I won't get a dividend on those shares because I bought them at the beginning of March 22 so XD.

[keith95] 11/2/2023 13:59

The repatriated funds came from interest rate swap gains ... while there is still no mechanism to move funds out of Russia ... ... current valuation of preference shares is 10p from the circular .... Question is, whether folk want the £1 a share in the event of a relisting plus 12p a year dividend and risk getting nothing.... Or cut and run now if they can find a buyer.That's a personal choice ... but I've made back the loss here elsewhere so I'm currently risking 10p to get 100p+ back ...... I'll stick with the above for now.

[drradcliffe] 11/2/2023 13:43

From the 9th Feb update: "As set out in our update of January 2023 the Company has been able to repatriate additional sterling funds from part of the proceeds from the sale of the interest rate caps in March 2022. We are pleased to note that the Board has recently agreed to make a one off payment of 3.45p per preference share relating to the 31 March 2022 preference dividend and the interest due on that dividend. Payment will
be made on 15 February 2023 to preference shareholders on the register at 18 February 2022, being the original record date for the 31 March 2022 dividend."

The most interesting thing is that they have been able to repatriate additional funds. How much of this have they kept back to give the business additional reserves? I reckon the prefs are worth a minimum of 20p each. They are cumulative so the unpaid dividends accrue with interest.

[keith95] 10/2/2023 21:58

Shareholder update January 2023 CEO report page 4:

"Funds held in the Company allow us to support the business for at least four years without any income being accessed from our investments."



"Prior to the sale of the business to the Russian management we ring fenced funds in Cyprus and Guernsey to meet medium term needs and we generated significant funds in RRHCL by the timely liquidation of interest rate caps when the Central Bank rate stood at 20%. It is 7.5% at the time of writing.

The Board is now considering utilising a portion of these funds as a special dividend for the preference shares, covering the
interest accruing on the suspended coupon and part of the March 2022 coupon due"

and

"Currently the Russian operations are profitable and cash generative. All banking obligations are being met and a surplus is being generated.
As yet this surplus is not available to shareholders as the Russian business and the Company both have to navigate the fear of sanctions and
Russian capital controls. However we hope to find a solution and in the meantime that surplus will build up and potentially pay debt down on
an accelerated basis."


10p for preference shares seems far too cheap to me given that management seems to be doing their job.

[igbertsponk] 10/2/2023 15:41

If you want to sell tell the Company as stated!

[laughton] 10/2/2023 14:25

Maybe - but has anyone actually succeeded in selling Ords @ 5p and buying Prefs @ 10p?

I have some ords that I'd be happy to sell at 5p if anyone's interested.

[hindsight] 10/2/2023 13:24

Good point but still highlights how any future dividend makes the price difference even more odd

[zangdook] 10/2/2023 12:02

The prefs are long since ex- the upcoming dividend.

[hindsight] 10/2/2023 11:11

Agree and prefs may get 3.5p soon so sell ords @ 5p and buy prefs @ 6.5p

[igbertsponk] 10/2/2023 10:40

Can't see how the Ords are worth 5p if the Prefs just 10p. Ords are in my view worthless as they stand behind the Prefs.

[montyhedge] 10/2/2023 10:13

Oh yes thanks I had a few of these just wrote it off, I noticed Interactive Investor, switch from my ISA and put them into my trading account. Wonder if I can get back in ISA.

[cwa1] 10/2/2023 08:11

Monty, read post 2149 above re dividend

[stemis] 09/2/2023 22:40

I have RAVP with AJ Bell, although in a SIPP. I did have some correspondence with them about what would happen to my holding and their reply was

"The stock will remain in your SIPP, but liquidity will be substantially reduced. We can execute a broker to broker trade if you have set this up with the buyer."

It currently sits there, at a price of 15p (which is presumably the last price they had). Anyway I'd be surprised if there is any problem with receiving the dividend.

[uncle_sam] 09/2/2023 22:25

Hmm. No recent RAVP notice or news in my AJ Bell messages. Will have to query them and watch attentively for that would be divi.

[keith95] 09/2/2023 21:05

"It's a big pain transferring ISAs or I would have done it immediately."

Transfer can take a few months .... but I moved from AJ Bell to Interactive Investor .... and I'm saving close to £1000 a year on platform fees across SIPP/ISA/Trading accounts.

I stayed with AJ Bell despite problems getting cleared cash out because their MMs always offered a price within the bid/offer whereas interactive investor MMs would average across the highest lowest bids when LII orders were low .... when AJ Bell moved over to an Interative model there was no motivation to stay.

[zangdook] 09/2/2023 20:47

OT
HL recently removed a stock from my account, claiming that they "had been told" that it had been declared of no value. Ten minutes research showed that a company with a close but not identical name had indeed been wound up, but that mine was still active. It took HL more than a month after this was pointed out to them before they restored my shares to my account, without any sort of admission that they had been mistaken. Until they tell me how they came to make the mistake, what measures they have taken to prevent anything like it ever happening again, and admitted to and apologised for their incompetence, they won't see another penny of mine. It's a big pain transferring ISAs or I would have done it immediately. If they try to withhold RAVP dividends, take them to the FCA or whoever it is that regulates them. Mine are held elsewhere.

iWeb despite their many other failings seem to be behaving themselves wrt Russian linked stocks.

[1knocker] 09/2/2023 20:15

keith95, I shall watch with interest [concern] to see what happens come 15th. I have a good deal of money with HL, dating from the days when they provided a good service, but if they don't collect dividends due to me, that will have to change.

I have been concerned about HL on another issue too. Last year I sold (ex div) parts of 2 holdings in Shell held on my account and another I manage, and in neither case was the dividend on the shares sold ex div credited to the account when the dividend was paid. I wrote querying that, and was told it was an 'administrative problem' of which they were already aware, and they did correct the amount of dividend credited to the accounts. But it leaves a horrid doubt as to whether (1) they WERE aware before I informed them and (2) whether the payment WOULD have been corrected (by alteration of the figure rather than a supplemental entry, needless to, so that the error no longer appears on the accounts) had I not noticed and drawn the matter to their attention. How many other 'administrative problems' have there been which I have NOT noticed and drawn to their attention? I have noticed no other income corrections. Its a pain, because I assume they get these things, and their arithmetic, right. There are limits to what one can reasonably check.

I shall keep an eye on this board to see whether and when others receive the promised Raven divvy!

It will be a bit of a bonus if we receive it. I had pretty much mentally written off my Raven prefs, so anything is welcome. I don't see an early end to the Ukrainian war, and even if the shooting stops I can't see much prospect of a resolution which would lead to the lifting of sanctions. The USA seems set on grinding Russia into the dust, notwithstanding that the only beneficiary of that will be China. A proxy war where the puppet master is suffering no casualties and has no clear and realistic objective could drag on as a Cold War for a very long time even if the shooting does stop. But WTFDIK. I am too thick even to understand how gifting western interests in Russian businesses to the Russians punishes Putin!

[wskill] 09/2/2023 19:25

Just checked my emails and Raven have updated me of the dividend good news for us shareholders,Putin will not be President forever ,he is not immortal rising resentment of this war in Russia will be his downfall.

[keith95] 09/2/2023 18:52

1knocker .... Move to Interactive Investor .....

[1knocker] 09/2/2023 18:29

Many thanks for posting that.

Needless to say, Hargreaves Lansdown on whose platform I hold the prefs have told me nothing whatever.

HL have been extremely unhelpful, indeed obstructive, in every respect in relation to shares caught by the sanctions. For example, they refused to assist in disposing of a holding of Gazprom shares, and refused even to transfer them to me to hold directly so as to facilitate my efforts to do so.

I hope they will accept the dividend payment and credit it to my account. It would not surprise me though if they will not, as it seems to be 'company policy' to refuse to participate in any transaction relating to 'Russian' stocks even when it is unquestionably lawful for them to do so.

I am damn sure they would not co-operate in any disposal of the shares. As I say, when the ADR arrangement under which my Gazprom were held came to an end, they would not even transfer the shares to me! The attitude seems to be that I am only the bloody owner, so what do my interests and instructions matter?

Since Peter Hargreaves retired, the customer service ethos of HL seems to have been abandoned.

[stemis] 09/2/2023 17:26

Nice to see some funds heading our way