Work Service Share Discussion Threads

[topvest] 19/8/2014 08:32

Next update will be interesting. All their companies appear to have turned the corner. The Hartim update will be the one to watch out for as there is loads of potential here.

[coolen] 18/8/2014 23:56

First 2 marks were a "put-through", but odd that it put the shares better at 57-62p. Then out came a small seller at 58p. Those were the trades on Monday.

Discount to nav would be looking attractive were it not for their skill in finding new banana skins to slip on.

[russman] 18/8/2014 22:57

More than 1 trade today. Stranger things have happened.

[coolen] 05/7/2014 22:06

Thanks for your research work, TopVest.

[topvest] 05/7/2014 21:35

Hartim accounts for 2013 are reasonably encouraging. A few highlights:

Operating profit of £696k on £22,154k of turnover. Exceptional costs of £523k for Australian disaster. PAT of £125k.

Net assets £681k and net debt of £1,257k.

One of the directors Short resigned in May.

Couldn't see any gremlins in the accounts and good that they are getting their accounts done more promptly again. Still a qualified audit opinion on limitation of scope of the Australian business.

I guess we will get an update from WSE soon, but should be able to clear the net debt within a year or two.

[topvest] 28/4/2014 20:26

Yes, they might actually generate some real shareholder value if things keep going this well.

[coolen] 28/4/2014 18:18

And the recent Creston strength is another plus, presumably ?

[topvest] 28/4/2014 16:14

See they have sold a further 125,000 shares in Northbridge. This is a good move, albeit probably could have sold more. At least with Northbridge they are taking some profits which has to be sensible after such a good run. Maybe another investment being considered? Last sale seemed to be needed for Hartim.

[smithie6] 18/3/2014 17:38

All those in favour ?

only me and Russman supporting one of the options/actions ??
....that one being a distribution in specie of the shares held by Western to its shareholders....and unlisted items then being held by Western in unlisted format

need over 5% in order to be able to put forward resolutions to the AGM imo

[smithie6] 14/3/2014 17:15

New Western

I'm going to run a new company on paper on this message board called "New Western"
ie. Western Selection run in a different and new way

...in part to hopefully do better than the current Western managers/directors do...
and hence put managers under the spotlight to
- improve performance
- improve the total return to shareholders (such as via buybacks etc)


part of the long term intention is to move the operation to be similar to normal investment funds such as Artemis, Blackrock.....where shares are bought/sold as wanted depending where any opportunities are seen....and getting out of shares when it is considered that the opportunity has ended

and hence to move away from the idea of having long term investments of 10-20 years with a Western representative on the bod...

Why ?
Because the 10-20 year investment strategy has been shown not to work....and all similar investment companies that follow that same strategy have also performed badly, while investment funds like Artemis, Blackrock have ALL performed well.

The Marshalls would I assume vehemently oppose such a change since they get directors fees and insiders information by sitting on bods (approx 480k for D.Marshall at Creston since 2000, + MWB), and make useful contacts and useful investing suggestions from other directors. L. Marshall received a director's fee of around 90k + expenses at City Group, adds up, especially when added to dirs. fees from other companies.

The investment return to the Marshalls is very good wrt the cash they have invested because of these directors fees, noting their investment is in London Finance but they also get income via Western Selection (eg. Creston dirs. fee)even though they havent invested 1 penny in Western !!!!
----
Also, having a person on a bod creates a conflict of interest since if Western sells their investment in that company then the Western representative needs to leave the bod....and lose their director's fees. The Western representative may decide not to sell Western shares because he does not want to lose his director's fees from that company !. Even though it might be the action that is the best for Western's shareholders.

The 'new' Western Selection would generally avoid having board representation on listed investments....and hence be free to buy or sell as preferred.


====

First action
General Portfolio

a) Removal of all tobacco shares
(see previous post. And noting that BATS broke its up trend from 2009 back in 2013)

b) Removal of Danone (European business has been poor....laid off some staff. Europe not about to change imo. Yogurt spending in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain etc, likely to fall imo......in sectors with fallings sales, there is normally pressure on profit margins as producers fight for the remaining sales)

c) Monitoring Walt Disney to then add it to the Gen. Portfolio (last results were very good....but laying off staff at games subsidiary....wait to see if that impacts the sp)

d) Review the rest of the Gen. Portfolio and then consider any changes.

====
Second Action
Partial sales of some NBI shares....1/5th of daily volumes at current price but not below....so as not to hit the share price ...or direct to other large holders. Say 10% of holding.
and then a compulsory share buy back of Western Shares using the money.

=====
Third action
Monitoring of mkts...and if mkts start falling...to consider to sell 1M from the Gen. Port. to cancel the bank loan of 1M.

Fourth Action
put forward new Articles of Association
including for
- full and transparent reporting to shareholders
- a weekly declaration of NAV (this could be just of listed holdings and Gen. Portfolio...and the mkt can then compare it with a reference value when the full official NAV was given)
- any shares not taken up in a rights issue can not be allocated to any other person including LFI
- that generally there shall be no new share issues, instead the company is required to grow using its existing capital/assets (and if that cant be done, then the managers should be replaced !)
- that company operation must be respectful of the small shareholders


----
Calling of EGM
- resolution to remove any LFI directors from Chairman position
- resolution for LFI to reduce its holding to 30%.
- resolution to cancel the authority to increase the number of shares by 50%
- creation of
- resolution to remove from the board and from any subsidiary or associate any person related to family trusts of the biggest shareholder (the company should be run correctly....and not by friends/family)
- vote on adding a shareholder representative to the bod (to help observe compliance with regulations and reduce risk of WESP being used for LFI's purposes or Marshall family trust purposes)
- publication of the details of share options including share price, number of options and to who. (for minor awards to staff such as receptionist that are not family members then this could be lumped together)
- performance conditions for share options shall be revealed to shareholders !! (amazing imo that this basic info is SECRET !!!)

- all persons who would receive more than 5% of the total number of share options must invest a part of their salary in shares of the company

(Mr Beale is the main responsible for day to day operation and does not own 1 Western share. Ridiculous. This may be part of the reason for the 'Australian misadventure'....taking excessive risk in order to meet the perf. reqts. in order to get Western shares for free....while losing NOTHING if it did not work. If so, MUST be changed imo.)
(the share options conditions perhaps need changing.....to incentivise good/solid performance and staying at the company perhaps....but without encouraging high risks (Auz. misadventure) which lose money for the shareholders)

[smithie6] 10/3/2014 10:50

Topvest
in case of interest

someone did a study of the financial numbers for all the companies in the equipt. hire sector...back in 2011

Speedy stuck out ...assets per share, etc
....highlighted to City Rd. dirs.

City Rd. chaps did not appear to have ANY study of the financial numbers for the equipt. hire sector...to use to compare the detailed financial perf. of NBI vs the others (poor show imo) (turnover per pnd of rental equipt, assets per pnd of share, profit per pnd of rental equipt....etc)

Speedy share price is now 4 TIMES HIGHER.


The money managers at City Rd.
....one has to question what they spend their time doing.....

...perhaps buying/selling for the Marshall family trust funds..?
...screen spread betting ?!

for NBI, CRE, SWL....(most of Western NAV)....they normally make 1 trade per year...and when Creston was at 50p last year they did not buy any (I did...and I am not getting paid to monitor Creston...and have no financial qualifications)
...nor did they top up Creston when it hit 20p in 2008/9

I also bt. NBI when it was 240p....before it doubled to 480p.....
while City Rd. managers bt. ......0.

(although at least they did participate in fund raising stages at NBI)

[smithie6] 10/3/2014 10:40

I'd settle for that.

Leave Hartim and anything else inside Western...and operate as unlisted co.

Shareholders would get around 95p of assets in kind (as shares in NBI, CRE, SWL etc)

and save 200k per year in monitoring costs (to monitor ...NBI, CRE, SWL !)
which is around 1p per share, so 50% divi increase and doubling of assets per share.

All those in favour ?!

Me, Russman, anyone else ?

[russman] 08/3/2014 18:25

Why bother:> asset strip and liquidate.

[smithie6] 07/3/2014 13:16

New Western

I'm going to run a Portfolio called "New Western"
...in part to hopefully do better than Western do...
and hence put managers under the spotlight to
- improve performance
- improve the total return to shareholders (such as via buybacks etc)


====

First action
General Portfolio

a) Removal of all tobacco shares
(see previous post. And noting that BATS broke its up trend from 2009 back in 2013)

b) Removal of Danone (European business has been poor....laid off some staff. Europe not about to change imo. Yogurt spending in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain etc, likely to fall imo......in sectors with fallings sales, there is normally pressure on profit margins as producers fight for the remaining sales)

c) Monitoring Walt Disney to then add it to the Gen. Portfolio (last results were very good....but laying off staff at games subsidiary....wait to see if that impacts the sp)

d) Review the rest of the Gen. Portfolio and then consider any changes.

====
Second Action
Partial sales of some NBI shares....1/5th of daily volumes at current price but not below....so as not to hit the share price ...or direct to other large holders. Say 10% of holding.
and then a compulsory share buy back of Western Shares using the money.

=====
Third action
Monitoring of mkts...and if mkts start falling...to consider to sell 1M from the Gen. Port. to cancel the bank loan of 1M.

Fourth Action
put forward new Articles of Association
including for
- full and transparent reporting to shareholders
- a weekly declaration of NAV (this could be just of listed holdings and Gen. Portfolio...and the mkt can then compare it with a reference value when the full official NAV was given)
- any shares not taken up in a rights issue can not be allocated to any other person including LFI
- that generally there shall be no new share issues, instead the company is required to grow using its existing capital/assets (and if that cant be done, then the managers should be replaced !)
- that company operation must be respectful of the small shareholders


----
Calling of EGM
- resolution to remove any LFI directors from Chairman position
- resolution for LFI to reduce its holding to 30%.
- resolution to cancel the authority to increase the number of shares by 50%
- creation of
- resolution to remove from the board and from any subsidiary or associate any person related to family trusts of the biggest shareholder (the company should be run correctly....and not by friends/family)
- vote on adding a shareholder representative to the bod (to help observe compliance with regulations and reduce risk of WESP being used for LFI's purposes or Marshall family trust purposes)
- publication of the details of share options including share price, number of options and to who. (for minor awards to staff such as receptionist that are not family members then this could be lumped together)
- performance conditions for share options shall be revealed to shareholders !! (amazing imo that this basic info is SECRET !!!)

- all persons who would receive more than 5% of the total number of share options must invest a part of their salary in shares of the company

(Mr Beale is the main responsible for day to day operation and does not own 1 Western share. Ridiculous. This may be part of the reason for the 'Australian misadventure'....taking excessive risk in order to meet the perf. reqts. in order to get Western shares for free....while losing NOTHING if it did not work. If so, MUST be changed imo.)
(the share options conditions perhaps need changing.....to incentivise good/solid performance and staying at the company perhaps....but without encouraging high risks (Auz. misadventure) which lose money for the shareholders)

[smithie6] 07/3/2014 13:06

if Western do read this msg. brd.



imo they should consider to remove tabacco company shares from the General Portfolio.
my logic is that the developed world is stepping up its anti-smoking actions...and these will start imo in the rest of the world over time...so, the future is not bright for tobacco sector


and here is an article saying sell from Motley Fool

[coolen] 06/3/2014 18:55

A little excitement here for a change:

A decent chunk of Swallowfield was gobbled up after the close on 5th March at 95p when the market price was only 85-91p.

The buyer has been revealed today.

Against that bullish news, 2 sellers totalling 11,000 shares at 50p have dented the WSE price.

I shall leave others to comment further.

[topvest] 05/3/2014 20:27

Change the record!

[smithie6] 05/3/2014 13:26

I see that the 2 Gen. Portfolio managers had a bit of a mare last year as well as in H1 this year !!

If they cant get another chimp to throw darts at a piece of paper to do the picking.....maybe they could use the same chimp but put the piece of paper upside down !!.....

couldnt do any worse imo !!
----

One of the 2 pickers is 80 years old....and is involved in the marshall family trusts and clearly is a close friend of David C. Marshall....
joined the board of Creston .....to then remove the other directors and sell the assets and turn Creston from property company into a shell....then into a marketing company.

he gets 30% of the commission on trades he proposes....as an associate of Finn brokers.

(and paying a commission to do trades is wrong imo....encourages churn of the shares...and there has been high churn in past years imo ,
Gen. Portfolio needs new managers....I think everyone would agree on that)
----

Dear Heald, Charlton, WH Lamb Ltd and any other > 3% holders.
You are losing fair amounts of money via bad management of the Gen. Portfolio.

Please pull your finger out and apply some pressure to Western; and/or put forward sensible resolutions to the AGM.

---

"General Portfolio

During the year the General Portfolio increased in value by 9%. Our investments
in FTSE100 and FTSE Fledging stocks, which comprise 37% of the General
Portfolio, increased in value by 8% whereas the FTSE100 increased by 12% and
the FTSE Fledgling by 28%. Our European and United States stocks, representing
27% and 37% of the General portfolio respectively decreased in value by 12% and
increased by 67% respectively. We have increased the General Portfolio by GBP
40,000 in the year. "

[smithie6] 05/3/2014 10:31

but
yes, price should be higher

[smithie6] 05/3/2014 10:31

hmmmm

but imo those that put up the money, us, should be told 'stuff'

Hartim, dirs. leaving , new ones arriving, share transactions...

no real info

- turnover for 2013 not given , but the Western dirs. know it.
- no reason given for fall in profit at Hartim, or whether numbers include any exceptionals
- has Mr Aird sold all his shares or just some ?
- what price did Mr Aird buy at in 2008 and at what price did he sell at in Dec 2013 ?
- what % does Mr Aird still own
- what % does each new director own ?

------

I dont think recent Hartim transactions were as good as was possible.
For putting up 620k ...Western should have insisted on some share options that would have given control of the company. Every other lender providing high risk capital requires a price, a bonus, often the loan being convertible and/or a much higher interest rate, such as 12-20%.
(in any case, I dont think that the RNSs provided are in fact true, but I'll keep that to myself rather than rock Hartim boat too much)

[topvest] 02/3/2014 22:09

The accounting looks fine to me. The disclosures are also acceptable. This is an investment in a private company. They are not going to disclose much more than they have to. Either relax and stick with it, or sell. Hartim will only get revalued when sold or listed. At this point there is quite a bit of upside, so I'm happy to hold.

[smithie6] 02/3/2014 20:52

Accounting
Have the rules been broken ?
They account for the loans to directors at Hartim and to Hartim...as an investment in associates...

should it not be identified as a loan rather than an investment in a company ??
..surely loans and debts should be identified...since material details...and affect quantifying risk..
the bank debt is identified....but not the corresponding loan to Hartim...

[smithie6] 02/3/2014 20:40

ah ..I see that NAV on 25th Feb given as 93p !!

Dont think I agree !

should be up imo...due to Creston rising since 31st Dec.

unless.....their choices for the Gen. Portfolio have screwed up even more !!
cancelling the gain due to Creston !