Standard Life Shares

ReportInvestor

Well your strategy has worked so far, Ym.

30% gains for those who bought extra & 24% gains from the 230p float price.

The float was this summer, wasn't it ? Or am I dreaming :A ?

How well & how quickly the shares have recovered from those apparently poor results. And if we get through October intact, the next two or three months have traditionally been quite good for equities [no guarantees it'll be the same in 2006, obviously]. Standard's underlying task remains, however, to show the City that the turnaround story is not just a story but can translate onto the bottom line - unlike last month.

I must admit I came close to halving my remaining holding down to 2,500 shares over the last two trading days.

gt94sss2

" Standard Life has revealed it has introduced commission on internal pension transfers just a week after its first financial results as a listed company were marred by news of big redemptions from its retirement plans.

A spokesman confirmed that the company had in the last few weeks started offering initial commission of up to 5% on internal transfers between its personal pensions and its Sipp.

He said this was in response to 'adviser and consumer demand' "

More here

Regards
Sunil

ReportInvestor

Yes. That's less than reassuring, and hints at emperors without clothes.

Chrismaths had already pointed it out further up the thread on post 392 (but without the Citywire link).

ReportInvestor

What about the rumoured proposed bid for Scottish Widows by Axa and Swiss Re that was apparently put to the board of Lloyds Bank that owns Widows.

Let's leave out, for the moment, the possible negative factor that if they were successful they wouldn't need to buy Standard Life .

The IA's Peter Lockie makes some comparisons betwee the alleged value of Widows and the possible comparative value of Standard Life

It looks as if Standard is currently valued at 4% more than Widows. But then again, the LLoyds board is said to have rejected the offer for Widows as too low.

Care is needed here [in addition to the usual caveats about discusing rumours] as other factors could be at work. The sale of Widows, for instance, could be seen as putting Lloyds itself in play. Which might make the Lloyds board more reluctant to sell. We don't know.

ReportInvestor

What about our bonus shares if there's a bid before July 2007?

Ian_W wrote:

So that makes up a quite sizeable 4th category of investors [institutions and individuals who bought in the market if I understand Ian correctly] - they have equal rights, no?

Just noticed this later edit of yours, Ian.

My line would be that they knew what they were buying into if they had done their homework. Standard was a company whose share price was going to be diluted by approximated 3% in July 2007. [3% = 5% bonus shares x 60% of original investors left.]

So if they get "equal" treatment from a bidder to our 60% army then they will have gained an additional [unfair?] boost to their shares in addition to any bid premium [ arguably, indeed surely?, at the expense of the 60% of loyal members/shareholders ].

But I suspect we could argue this all day .

An earlier poster suggested that the bonus shares had already been issued at flotation. At the time I didn't think it mattered whether they had or had not been issued at flotation, rather than later.

But this issue about what would become of bonus shares in a bid situation could mean that it is significant.

Us members have got our rights, too

Ian_W

ReportInvestor wrote:

But I suspect we could argue this all day .

I suspect we could, but it might be more productive waiting and seeing - or to paraphrase Mrs B, First catch you predator bird! :rolleyes:

BTW, did you notice they soared this morning to 289.25?:j Thought they were going past 290 but they closed back down at 283.:rolleyes: At this rate I might not be one of the fast diminishing "60%" former members if/ when a bid is made!

WILS_2

At this moment in time why would anyone sell their Standard Life shares? Is it because you think they have almost reached the peak in their price? Aren't they going to continue rising like they have been doing? Is standard life getting taken over and everyone waiting for the price to rocket up?

Anyone you can help answer any of my questions is brilliant! Please help if you can.

ReportInvestor

Hi WILLS and welcome to this section of the site .

Standard appears to be rising for a variety of reasons. Takeover talk is one. Gradually losing its lowly rating compared to the rest of the sector is another. Stock shortgage among institutional investors and tracker funds is a third technical factor. Further there has been success in gaining new business. Finally UK and world stock markets have had a good run recently.

Against that the September results were a disappointment and raise the issue of whether the management is succeeding in turning around the company. Also redemptions from the with profits fund were high - will these slow down? Thirdly the bid rumours may be just talk and nothing more. Then there is a technical issue that may hit the shares in 2007. This army of former members may be waiting for its 5% bonus shares in July 2007 and could sell their shares in large numbers when they get them. So bearish analyst Roman Cidzn, who talks of Standard having to carry a heavy ball up a hill as it makes slow business progress towards peer comparability, may have the last laugh after all.

Anyway, as a result of the technical factors - institutional stock shortgage, private investor reluctance to sell - the stock may be overbought.

Or it may not be .

Don't take my word for it. DYOR. And don't automatically assume that the reasons given above are the only or even the main factors affecting the share price.

chickalittle

Hi - with the current good share price on SL I'm debating selling but notice that there's quite a few comments on here about take over bids. In general, what are people hoping a take over share offer would be? Any thoughts/ideas? I don't know what the price was with other institutions in the financial sector when they were subject to take overs so just curious!

Gorgeous_George

We should remember that SL shares were originally estimated to be worth 240p - 290p. The stock market suffered a slump and SL shares eventually floated at 230p.

Since then, the FTSE has recovered and increased slightly (not sure of exact figures). Therefore, maybe 290p should not be seen as too high a figure for SL at the moment.

291.5 right now!!!!

318p and they will pay for the car I bought 1 Sep.



GG