Monthly Archives: June 2017

Royal Dutch Shell: June 2017 Dividend.

Yesterday Royal Dutch Shell paid out its Quarterly Dividend.

$0.47 a share is to be paid out.

$0.47 a share  = 37.12p

http://www.shell.com/investors/dividend-information/historical-dividend-payments/first-quarter-2017-interim-

Royal Dutch Shell plc’s capital consists of 4,476,695,491 A shares and 3,745,486,731 B shares, each with equal voting rights

https://irssl.euroinvestor.com/asp/ir/IRM_Shell/ssl2017/NewsRead.aspx?storyid=13615958&ishtml=1

Thus:-

4,476,695,491 A shares x 37.12p + 3,745,486,731 B shares x 37.12p = £3,052,074,040.81

That is £3 Billion.

Delicious.

Last Time Buyers: The truth about UK housing

The term last time buyers is the fact of the UK housing shortage.

The facts.

The housing market in the UK is stagnant, largely because there aren’t enough new houses being built for people to move into.  With over 11.4 million homeowners over the age of 55 classed as Last Time Buyers.

These “Last Time Buyers” (LTBs) are sitting on £820 billion of property wealth and 7.7 million spare bedrooms. The equivalent to 2.6 million family homes.

Imagine the possibility of freeing up these houses ?
What huge affect this would have. So why has nothing happened ?

First, many older homeowners allow inertia to keep them in their current home, which is often no longer fit for purpose and expensive to maintain. Also, many of those 55 and over – and 63% of those with at least two spare bedrooms – do intend to move, but all too often, they leave it late. More than half believe that it will be best to wait until they are over 70 before moving, and a quarter will wait until 80. Coupled with a lack of suitable alternatives, high asking prices and the potential tax burden when they do try to downsize, this means that many will never make the move.

We need tax advantages to help our retired population down size and free up homes and nlock huge amounts of wealth.

BP Dividend.

BP today paid out its quarterly dividend, Fri 23rd June 2017

http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/bp_plc/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=233&newsid=881611

the first quarter 2017 would be US$0.10 per ordinary share = 7.7563 pence per share.

What is the cost of this dividend to BP PLC ?

http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/bp_plc/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=233&newsid=878650

The total number of voting rights in BP p.l.c. is 19,684,630,913

Thus:

19,684,630,913 x 7.7563 pence per share =  £1,526,799,027.51

That is £1.526 Billion = £1.526 Billion

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=10022&record_search=1&search_phrase=BP

A yield of 6.9%. Delicious.

The Henderson Diversified Income Trust

The Henderson Diversified Income Trust is a London Listed investment company

https://www.janushenderson.com/ukpi/fund/195/henderson-diversified-income-limited

The Top Ten Holdings are:-

1 VIRGIN MEDIA SECURED FINANCE PLC 6.25% BDS 28/03/29 GBP100000REG S 2.10%
2 NATIONWIDE BLDG SOC 10.25% VAR PERP CCDS GBP 2.00%
3 CO-OPERATIVE GROUP HLDGS 2011 LTD 6.25% NTS 08/07/26 GBP100000 1.80%
4 CSC 6.625% 2025 1.80%
5 PGH CAPITAL 6.625% 18/12/25 1.80%
6 TRAVELPORT 6/16 TLB 1.80%
7 COTT CORP 5.5% BDS 01/04/25 USD2000 144A 1.70%
8 CREDIT SUISSE GROUP 6.25% 2049 1.70%
9 ERICOM IRELAND 10/16 TLB 1.60%
10 EVRY 9/10 TLB4 1.60%

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=250708&action=

a yield of over 5%

Falling Living Standards

Work done by highly regarding Resolution Foundation shows how living standards are falling

http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/

As inflation picks up, and wage growth is near zero, our purchasing power falls.
As items such as petrol for the car, food such as staples like bread, milk, cheese and fruit all increase in price, but zero wage growth, life gets hard.

http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/for-low-income-families-the-next-four-years-could-be-worse-than-the-recession/

What this shows time and time again, the most vulnerable suffer.

Real Estate Credit Investments

The Real Estate Credit Investments focuses on secured commercial and residential debt in the UK and Western Europe by exploiting opportunities in publically traded securities and real estate loans.

http://www.recreditinvest.com/

The Investment Portfolio of loans is worth £163.7m 

Number of loans 19
Fair Value £112.8m of loans
Number of bonds 28
Bond Portfolio £62.7m

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=152828&action=

The Alcentra European Floating Rate Income Fund Limited

The Alcentra European Floating Rate Income Fund Limited is London listed investment company.

https://www.aefrif.com/

The fund invests predominantly in senior secured loans and floating rate senior secured bonds issued by European corporates.

5 Largest Holdings:-

Numericable  3.14% of Fund
Motor Fuel Group 2.57% of Fund
ERM 2.46% of Fund
Diaverum 2.20% of Fund
Cabot 1.95% of Fund

The Geographic Breakdown:-

UK 34.62%
France 16.02%
Netherlands 10.61%
Germany 8.78%
USA 6.34%
Luxembourg 5.09%
Sweden 4.47%
Spain 3.49%
Norway 2.62%
Other 5.99%
Cash 1.97%

It pays dividends monthly.

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=2673632

A yield of over 6.5%

Legal and General June Dividend.

On Thursday 8th June, Legal and General PLC paid out 10.35p to shareholders.

www.legalandgeneral.com

What was the cost of the dividend to Legal and General PLC ?

http://ir.euroinvestor.com/Tools/newsArticleHTML.aspx?solutionID=3066&customerKey=legalandgeneralgroup&storyID=13617595&language=en

The Company’s capital consisted of 5,955,353,619 Ordinary shares of 2.5p each, with voting rights.

Thus:-

5,955,353,619 x £0.1035 = £616,379,099.57

That is £616 Million

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10055&action=

that is 5.5% yield.

Delicious.

HM Government Borrowings: May 2017

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 May 2017, 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:-

23-May-2017 0 1/8% Index-linked Treasury Gilt 2036 £882.3000 Million
18-May-2017 1¾% Treasury Gilt 2019 £2,962.1500 Million
04-May-2017 1¾% Treasury Gilt 2037 £2,293.7880 Million

When you add the cash raised:-

∑(£882.3000 Million + £2,962.1500 Million + £2,293.7880 Million) =  £6,138.238 Million

£6,138.238 Million  = £6.138238  Billion

On another way of looking at it, is in the 31 days in May, HM Government borrowed:-

£198 million each day for the 31 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 2019, 20236and 2037. All long term borrowings, we are mortgaging our futures, but at least “We Are In It Together….