This space is reserved for gibson330 to introduce himself.
Quite a good time (from a UK shareholder perspective) to be monetising USD assets, IMO: If Soco do announce a dividend policy in respect of £-deominated shares how much forward selling of US$ would you then be advocating? (Assuming of course that things are taken over by events.)
All very small beer anyway compared with the big picture. £20m is neither here nor there than the NAV of TGT.£20m is only the impact of the share buy back. The Company must be close to cash balances of US$200m or the equivalent of approaching £0.40 per share. That’s not small beer and without a dividend policy it is only set to escalate rapidly.
One spin-off from these buybacks is that there is some £20m that would otherwise be exposed to ‘credit risk’ as an equivalent US Dollar deposit. Casting an eye at credit risk exposure, the Annual Report does contain policy statements in both the Financial Review (page 34) and in the Notes (page 80) regarding this element of risk management and these offer some degree of comfort…
Actually the bond wasn't a bad deal for anyone. ... that's stretching things a tad. The existence of the bondholders early redemption rights (the 'put') made this a 4-year commitment only and indeed bondholders partially exercised this option and US$165.9m were redeemed at the fourth anniversary, from the original issue of $250m. Did the Company really believe at the outset that they had a 7-year…
It is worth noting that, for buyers operating in a USD base currency, the FX rate vs Sterling has now dipped under 1.57 For SIA shareholders, given that it isn't totally USD denominated, perhaps they will invest a chunk of that growing cash pile in something other than US treasury bills? 3month US Treasuries currently yielding 0%, having had a negative yield in August.
