Monthly Archives: March 2016

The March 2016 US Federal Reserve Balance Sheet

The most powerful organisation in the world, could be the mighty US Federal Reserve.
The Central Bank to the world’s most dynamic and largest economy. Home to companies like Amazon, Google, IBM, Intel, Ford, BT Private Wires and S-One Communications.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/h41.htm

Look at the current size of the balance sheet.

4,453,820 MILLION on Wed March 23rd 2016

That is $4.45 TRILLION

That is over 25% of the size of the US National GDP. It is absolutely massive.

Admiral Group PLC

The Admiral Group is a UK insurance company, that is a member of the FTSE-100

https://admiralgroup.co.uk/investor-relations/

Many brands come under the Admiral name, such as Elephant, Diamond and Confused.com

What is interesting is to see the money under management at Admiral. Clearly this money is what is funded from the insurance premiums it collects.

https://admiralgroup.co.uk/sites/default/files_public/slides/2015/08/2015-interim-results-slides.pdf

£2,450 Million = £2.45 Billion

8% Gilts
23% Cash
11% Cash Deposits
25% Money Market Funds
34% Fixed Invome and Short Dated Debt Securities

Interesting to see no exposure to equities.

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=103870

And it offers investors a dividend yield of 2.6%

The FTSE-250 Index

The FTSE-250 is the UK Index that is one below the FTSE-100. It represents the UK’s next set of 250 largest companies after the FTSE-100 companies.

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=50059

888 Holdings
3i Infrastructure
AA
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust
Acacia Mining
Aggreko
Aldermore Group
Allied Minds
Alliance Trust
Amec Foster Wheeler
AO World
Ashmore Group
Assura
WS Atkins
Auto Trader Group
Aveva
BBA Aviation
BH Macro
B & M European Retail Value
BTG
Balfour Beatty
Bankers Investment Trust
Bank of Georgia Holdings
A.G. Barr
Beazley Group
Bellway
Berendsen
Big Yellow Group
Bluecrest Allblue Fund
Bodycote
Booker Group
Bovis Homes Group
Brewin Dolphin Holdings
British Empire Securities and General Trust
Britvic
N Brown Group
Cable & Wireless Communications
Cairn Energy
Caledonia Investments
Capital & Counties Properties
Card Factory
Carillion
Centamin
Cineworld
Circassia Pharmaceuticals
City of London Investment Trust
Clarkson
Close Brothers Group
CLS Holdings
Cobham
Computacenter
Countrywide
Cranswick
Crest Nicholson
Croda International
Daejan Holdings
Dairy Crest
DCC
Debenhams
Dechra Pharmaceuticals
Derwent London
DFS
Dignity
Diploma
Domino’s Pizza
Drax Group
Dunelm Group
Edinburgh Investment Trust
Electra Private Equity
Electrocomponents
Elementis
Enterprise Inns
Entertainment One
Essentra
Esure
Euromoney Institutional Investor
Evraz
F&C Commercial Property Trust
Fidelity China Special Situations
Fidelity European Values
Fidessa Group
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust
FirstGroup
Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust
G4S
Galliford Try
GCP Infrastructure Investments
Genesis Emerging Markets Fund
Genus
Go-Ahead Group
Grafton Group
Grainger
Great Portland Estates
Greencore
Greene King
Greggs
HICL Infrastructure Company
Halfords Group
Halma
Hansteen Holdings
HarbourVest Global Private Equity
Hastings Group
Hays
Henderson Group
Hiscox
Home Retail Group
Homeserve
Howden Joinery
ICAP
IG Group Holdings
IMI
IP Group
Ibstock
Inchcape
Indivior
Informa
Intermediate Capital Group
International Personal Finance
International Public Partnerships
Interserve
Investec
JD Sports
JPMorgan American Investment Trust
JPMorgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust
Jardine Lloyd Thompson
Jimmy Choo
John Laing Group
John Laing Infrastructure Fund
Jupiter Fund Management
Just-Eat
Just Retirement
Keller
Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate
Kier Group
Ladbrokes
Laird
Lancashire Holdings
LondonMetric Property
Lookers
Man Group
Marshalls
Marston’s
Mediclinic International
Meggitt
Melrose Industries
Mercantile Investment Trust
Michael Page International
Micro Focus International
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
Mitchells & Butlers
Mitie
Moneysupermarket.com Group
Monks Investment Trust
Morgan Advanced Materials
Morrisons
Murray International Trust
National Express Group
NB Global
NCC Group
NMC Health
Northgate
Nostrum Oil & Gas
Ocado Group
OneSavings Bank
Ophir Energy
P2P Global Investments
PZ Cussons
Paddy Power Betfair
Paragon Group of Companies
PayPoint
Pendragon
Pennon Group
Perpetual Income & Growth Investment Trust
Personal Assets Trust
Petrofac
Pets at Home
Phoenix Group Holdings
Playtech
Polar Capital Technology Trust
Polymetal
Polypipe
Poundland
Provident Financial
QinetiQ
RIT Capital Partners
RPC Group
Rank Group
Rathbone Brothers
Redefine International
Redrow
Regus
Renewables Infrastructure Group

The exhaustive list of the FTSE-250

Glencore PLC

Glencore is a member of the FTSE-100. It has 160,000 employees and contractors in over 50 countries. It produces and trades more than 90 commodities derived from natural resources

http://www.glencore.com/

It the world of commodity prices slumping, the company is carrying a mountain of debt

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=2558517

it is exceptionally exposed to the falling price of commodities.

http://www.glencore.com/assets/investors/doc/debt-investor/GLEN-2015-Glencore-plc-update-and-details-of-funding-structure-6Oct2015.pdf

It has to issue a press release to explain its position

Long-term debt of $31.1 Billion with $5.4 Billion maturing within 12months. [$31.1 Billion = £21.59 Billion,  $5.4 Billion = £3.78 Billion]

That is the problem of carrying such large amounts of debt. When times are good, maintaining debt repayments is trivial. But when market conditions worsen, them the situation is very different.

Hammerson PLC

Hammerson PLC is a FTSE-100 property developer

http://www.hammerson.com

Some key property assets are:-

22 major shopping centres
21 convenient retail parks
15 Premium Outlets (via Value Retail partnership and VIA Outlets fund)
2.2 mil m2 retail space
Passing rent £340m
Occupancy 97.2%

Yes, rental income of £340m

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10209

With a market capitalisation of  £4.4 billion it offers shareholders a dividend yield of 4%.

It’s properties are worth £8,374m
It carries debt of £2,968m.

The Debt of BHP Billiton.

BHP Billiton is a massive natural resources company. A £15bn company.

http://www.bhpbilliton.com/

it has the motto of “Resourcing The Future” as it is effectively a mining company.

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10019

What is interesting is the debt mountain that BHPBillition carries.
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/~/media/bhp/documents/investors/debt-investors/2015/150904_investorsmedia_debtinvestors_fy15resultspres.pdf?la=en

US$24.4 Billion = £16.9 Billion

The Alliance Trust PLC

The Alliance Trust PLC is a very old UK listed investment trust.

http://www.alliancetrust.co.uk/

Its origins begin back in 1873 with founding of The Oregon and Washington Trust Co Ltd, which was set up in Dundee in 1873 to lend to pioneer farmers in the Pacific North West of the United States. within a few years a few mergers of investment trusts occured this resulted in the incorporation of The Alliance Trust Company Ltd on 21 April 1888.

Today it is a £2.5 Billion fund.

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=10113&record_search=1&search_phrase=alliance

It’s holdings are:

£m  Shares
117.1 Visa
100 Pfizer
89.1 Accenture
85.1 Prudential
82.9 Walt Disney
77.5 Amgen
75.6 Wells Fargo
74.2 CVS Caremark
69.5 CSL
65.5 National Grid
64.4 Legal & General
59.4 NASDAQ
59 American Tower
56.3 Intesa Sanpaolo
56.1 Blackstone
55.4 Daikin Industries
53.7 Reckitt Benckiser
53.1 Danaher
53 Equinix
52.1 Continental
51.2 Swedbank
50.7 Vodafone
50.5 Tencent
49.6 SAP AG
48.7 TJX Cos
48.3 Express Scripts Holding
46.9 Amerisourcebergen
46.7 Ecolab
46.5 Deutsche Telekom
46.4 Johnson Matthey
45 Roche
44.8 Alphabet
44.5 Macquarie Infrastructure
43.8 Novo-Nordisk
43.1 ENN Energy
43 ORIX
42.2 Linear Technology
41.8 Dentsu
40.4 WPP
39.6 Enterprise Product Partners
38.6 Mitsui Fudosan
36.4 Schlumberger
36 SS&C Technologies
35.3 GlaxoSmithKline
34.8 Cadence Design Systems
33.9 Henkel
33.6 Deutsche Post
33 Unilever
32.7 ARM
31.1 Total
30.9 Norsk Hydro
30.6 Toronto-Dominion Bank
30.4 Seagate Technology
30.1 Roper Technologies
29.1 Statoil
28 AmBev
24.8 Melrose Industries
24.6 Vtech
22.6 Schneider Electric
18.9 Bangkok Bank
3 Ashmore Global Opportunities
2930.9 Sub Total Equities

£m OEICS Name
63.2 Monthly Income Bond Fund
62.9 Sustainable Future Pan-European Equity Fund
11 Sustainable Future Cautious Managed Fund
10.8 Sustainable Future Defensive Managed Fund
10.1 Dynamic Bond Fund
158 Sub Total OEICS

£m Other Asset Classes
126.3 Private Equity
77 Operating Subsidiaries
0 Property
35.4 Cash
17.5 Other Assets
-390 Gearing

2955.1m Total Net Assets

The FTSE All Share

The FTSE All-Share Index was originally called the FT Actuaries.

The FTSE All-Share Index represents the performance of all eligible companies listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market, which pass screening for size and liquidity. The index captures 98% of the UK’s market capitalisation

FTSE All-Share Index is the aggregation of the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 250 Index and FTSE SmallCap Index.

It’s top ten holdings make up 31% of the index.

HSBC Holdings 4.89%
British American Tobacco  3.70 %
GlaxoSmithKline 3.56%
BP 3.49%
Royal Dutch Shell A  3.05%
Vodafone Group 3.03%
AstraZeneca 2.89%
Diageo 2.42 %
Lloyds Banking Group 2.13&
BT Group 40,578 2.07%

[http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=50100]

The New Shell PLC

Royal Dutch Shell has now acquired the UK’s Liquid Natural Gas giant BG Group
[http://www.bg-group.com]

To fund the aquisition has taken on more borrowings and issued more shares. It has become an even larger massive energy corporation

As a result, Shell’s capital now consists of 4,209,649,877 Shell A shares and 3,745,486,731 Shell B shares.
[The total number of Shell A shares and Shell B shares in issue will be 7,955,136,608]

Shell A
http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=133655

Shell B
http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=133755

Shell now becomes the largest company on the FTSE-100.

2015.16 HM Government Borrowing Forecast

Here we are in P12. Period 12 of the current tax year. HM Government has spent more money that it has earned and thus has had to borrow on the Bond Market to fund its operations.

The current forecast is that HM Government has had to borrow £69,500 Million.

Thus overspending by £69.5 Billion.

It has been like this since about 2000, so for 16 yearsH HM Government has been spending more than it earns, that is why the total national debt is so massive.

Total debt is about:

£1,542,600 Million = £1,542.6 Billion = £1.5426 TRILLION

[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/psa/public-sector-finances/december-2015/stb.html]

The levels of debt are punishing. Interest payments have to be made to the creditors.

UK Population is about 64 million

Thus in 2015-16 the UK had to borrow £69,500 Million that means for the total UK population, the UK Government borrowed £1,085 for every person in the UK.

The Total Debt the UK carries is £1,542,600 Million thus for the 64 Million UK residents, each UKcitizen is carrying an incredible £24,103.

Clearly we are in it together.

BT’s Feb 2016 Dividend.

BT Group PLC, is the most dynamic telecoms, broadband and media business in the world.

www.btplc.com

On the 8th of Feb 2016, BT PLC paid its interim dividend. It paid its shareholders 4.40p.

BT’s issued share capital on the 31st Dec 2015 consisted of 8,373,227,252 ordinary shares with voting rights. On this date, BT Group plc held 6,950,839 ordinary shares as treasury shares and thus, the total number of voting rights in BT Group plc on that date was 8,366,276,413.

So it paid out £0.044 per 8,366,276,413 shares.

So what cash left the business on the 8th Feb 2016 ?

8,366,276,413 x £0.044 = £368,116,162

Yes, £368 million was paid to the loyal shareholders of BT Group PLC

Vodafone’s Feb 2016 Dividend.

On the 3rd of Feb 2016, Vodafone PLC paid its interim dividend. It paid its shareholders 3.68p.

Vodafone’s issued share capital consists of 28,813,387,198 ordinary shares of which 2,258,276,689 ordinary shares are held in Treasury.
Thus the total number of voting rights in Vodafone is 26,555,110,509

So it paid out £0.0368 per 26,555,110,509 shares.

So what cash left the business on the 3rd Feb 2016 ?

26,555,110,509 x £0.0368 = £977,228,067

Yes, £977 million was paid to the loyal shareholders of Vodafone PLC

15.16 Equity ISA Selection

Some great low cost funds Legal and General.

http://www.legalandgeneral.com/investments/isas/

For 15.16 these funds look like an a good choice….

L&G Global Health & Pharmaceuticals Index
L&G Worldwide Trust
L&G Asian Income Trust
L&G Distribution Trust
High Income
L&G Global Technology Index
L&G Pacific Index
L&G UK Property
L&G International Index
European Index
Mixed Investment Fund 20-60%
US Index
Ethical Trust
Global Equity Index Tracker

HM Government Borrowings: Feb 2016

Another month, guess what, take a lucky guess, it is the same old story, HM Government, spends more money than it receives via taxes and duties. Another deficit month, thus to bridge the gap, needs to borrow on the bond market.

In Feb 2016, the HM Government had to borrow money to meet the difference between tax revenues and public sector expenditure. The term for this is The PSNCR: The Public Sector Net Cash Requirement.

There were “only” 3 auctions of Gilts (UK Government Bonds) by the UK Debt Management Office (http://www.dmo.gov.uk/) to raise cash for HM Treasury :-
17-Feb-2016 1½% Treasury Gilt 2026 £2,750 Million
11-Feb-2016 3½% Treasury Gilt 2045 £1,649.9750 Million
09-Feb-2016 0 1/8% Index-linked Treasury Gilt 2026 £1,429.9650
When you add the cash raised:-

∑(£2,750 Million + £1,649.9750 Million + £1,429.9650) =  £5,829.94 Million

£5,829.94 Million Million= £5.829 Billion

On another way of looking at it, is in the 29 days in Feb, HM Government borrowed:-

£201 million each day for the 29 days. We are fortunate, while the global banking and financial markets still has the confidence in HM Government to buy the Gilts (Lend money to the UK), the budget deficit keeps rising. What is also alarming, is the dates these bond mature 2026 and 2045. All long term borrowings, we are mortgaging our futures, but at least “We Are In It Together…

Standard Life’s Debt Investors.

The highly regarded Life Assurance and Asset Manager, Standard Life PLC, has a Debt Investor programme to borrow money on the bond market to attract investors who are seeking a fixed income.

http://www.standardlife.com/debt_investors/subordinated_debt.html

It has 3 funding programmes:-

£500m @6.75%
£300m @6.546%
£500m @5.5%

So borrowings of £1.3 Billion paying the bond holders over 5%.

An incredible yield from a company with over £300 Billion under management