Watkin Jones Share Discussion Threads

[jamie261] 24/3/2017 09:37

Looking to buy more of these on this dip.Question - can level 2 help time when's good to buy today? Share price seems to have stabilised now, is L2 showing strength I.e is now good for my top up?

[greyingsurfer] 24/3/2017 09:16

Agree jw. The family have a large amount of capital tied up in an enterprise that only one of them is still actively involved with. It's no surprise if they want to take cash out. And this seems like a good time to do it when they have easily found buyers. It will be no surprise if more get sold from the same source in the future.Peter

[alphabeta4] 24/3/2017 09:12

I think PJ this was always their plan, often when companies list the previous owners don't get shot of everything at once. As has already been mentioned they often like a cheap valuation to get the IPO away and then gradually sell into the market as the price gets a stronger footing.

This is pretty normal IMO and is somewhat different from directors selling because they think the valuation is too high. Some examples that spring to mind are G4M (private equity holder selling out at £3.10 from memory), MAB1 (CEO at IPO retaining a very large holding that has gradually reduced), ACSO (founder reducing holding over a number of years).

In all of these, and I'm sure there are other examples, the company has continued to tick along very nicely post sale and original holders have multiple times their initial investment.

[jonwig] 24/3/2017 09:10

PJ0077 - post #765 has mine.

[pj0077] 24/3/2017 08:58

SANTANGELLOAgreed.. the business & it's numbers haven't changed.However, the largest shareholder (+CFO) have just rushed to dump 20% of the company at their first opportunity after the twelve month lock-up.Thoughts?

[its the oxman] 24/3/2017 08:53

Some institution will subscribe and then simply sell even if only for a few % just to make a quick turn. Price should recover over the course of next week.

[jonwig] 24/3/2017 08:41

waketaker - they placed all the shares they offered, but didn't offer their full holdings. It's the latter which are locked-in.
(See header for holdings prior to offer.)

[waketaker] 24/3/2017 08:38

The Ordinary Shares held by the Sellers which were not sold in the Placing by the Sellers are subject to a 180-day lock-up

Pardon my ignorance but does this mean that not all the shares were allocated? If so how many weren't?

[santangello] 24/3/2017 08:11

Another 5k tucked away thank you....Trade took a few minutes to process though.Important to put into perspective that the company, it's business and it's numbers have not changed....

[the big fella] 24/3/2017 07:58

That is a shed load of shares so £1.40 a significant vote of confidence and as a long term holder whether it falls a little today is pretty irrelevant to me

[markie7] 24/3/2017 07:42

This is all good. £1 was too cheap, so easy but when it came out. Now we have a broader shareholder base and a more liquid one. All necessary steps.

[rivaldo] 24/3/2017 07:29

Indeed, perfectly standard practice. Bit disappointed they couldn't get 145p or above, but I suppose the institutions demanded their pound of flesh.

I suppose this was to be expected and could have been mitigating share price progress to an extent. Let's hope WJG have given the new investors good reason to take such a big interest in the company.

[greyingsurfer] 24/3/2017 07:17

Pretty standard practice, isn't it, to announce and do that sort of placing out of hours. Do it with minimum disruption to the sp?Peter

[jonwig] 24/3/2017 07:08

So quite smart of them to announce it after yesterday's close!

[skinny] 24/3/2017 07:03

Further to the announcement released yesterday, the G&J Watkin Jones 1992 Settlement Trust and Philip Byrom (together the "Sellers") have sold a total of 50,250,000 ordinary shares of one penny each in the Company (the "Ordinary Shares") (the "Placing Shares") at a price of 140 pence per share (the "Placing"). The Placing Shares represent approximately 19.7% of the Company's entire issued share capital.

Peel Hunt LLP ("Peel Hunt") acted as sole Bookrunner in connection with the Placing.

The Ordinary Shares held by the Sellers which were not sold in the Placing by the Sellers are subject to a 180-day lock-up which is subject to customary exceptions and which will otherwise only be waived with the consent of the Bookrunner (the "Sellers' Lock-Up"). In addition, the Ordinary Shares held by Mark Watkin Jones and by the Watkin Jones Will Trust are also subject to a 180-day lock-up on the same terms as that of the Sellers' Lock-Up.

[jonwig] 24/3/2017 06:47

bestace - my own feeling is that the family is starting a fairly major divestment. In one or two articles, Mark WJ is described as "the last of the family members to be involved in the company" (sorry can't confirm).

The current market should support this divestment at a reasonable price, as institutions can't buy in quantity in the normal market, though many were involved at IPO. It might be different six months from now. (Bangor beach rather than Monaco?)

It occurred to me a year ago that the 100p issue price was way too cheap and I bought almost straight away. Was this a deliberate plan to achieve a good premium by the end of the first year? Enough of conspiracies!

[bestace] 23/3/2017 23:14

Yes, in a nutshell.



The 1992 trust owned 34.57% of the shares so is selling around half and will still retain 39.5m shares after the sale.

Philip Byrom, the CFO, owns 1.63% of the shares, which will reduce to 1.24% after his sale of 1m shares.

The question is, are the trust shareholders intending to sell out entirely in time? will we have to go through this rigmarole again in 6 months time?

[2vdm] 23/3/2017 22:28

I'm coming to this a bit late. Is this the WJ family getting cash out by selling some of its shares held in trust by effectively selling them to large buyers out of hours under mkt rules. If so will they still have a large interest in the co? If not, is there a simple explanation of what's just been agreed/offered? TIA

[its the oxman] 23/3/2017 21:49

My guess is 145p. 5% discount

[bestace] 23/3/2017 20:30

I got the email alert from Investegate, but it looks like Peel Hunt was the issuer of the RNS hence why it's not appearing under the WJG ticker.

I suppose if they didn't go down the accelerated book build approach, the alternative would be a steady drip feed of sales over a long period of time, which would definitely have a protracted overhang effect on the share price. Surely better for everyone to get the sale out of the way in a big bang approach - the sellers get a better price, buying institutional shareholders get to buy in bulk stakes which might otherwise take them months to build, and existing shareholders don't suffer from a long overhang.

[rivaldo] 23/3/2017 20:24

Hew, the RNS is here:



It's all perfectly usual. The bookbuild will have happened pronto and should have been completed extremely quickly, such that the completion RNS will be out first thing tomorrow. Given WJG's performance to date and the security of future earnings I very much doubt there'll be many problems finding takers - hopefully Peel Hunt are capable of organising it at a minimal discount. Maybe at 150p as a nice round number?

[its the oxman] 23/3/2017 19:26

Could be a good buying opportunity tomorrow. A bit like OTB was last week.

[hew] 23/3/2017 19:09

Thanks for responses. I appreciate that "fairness issues" (Ha!) re timing depend on whether and whatever RNS comes out at 7 am and any material price change as a consequence, book build completed or no. (Issued during trading - no indeed!) Several possibilities but it is likely that some will have many hours to plan their response and some far less. The RNS is not on Investegate at present for instance - normally I would not be checking until tomorrow. I'd be grateful for an explanation of why this way is advantageous to someone - small shareholders, I doubt! Two RNS would seem to be required whatever transpires.

[bestace] 23/3/2017 18:39

jonwig - no probs! yes the response to such a question would probably have been to decline the question, but the body language might have told its own story.

hew - no I don't think so, if this news was released during market hours it would have caused more price disruption. As it is, they may be able to complete the bookbuild and announce the results at 7am tomorrow.

CTH did the same thing yesterday with an announcement after the markets had closed, albeit the results RNS didn't come out till the middle of the day today. The CTH price actually rose today.