Standard Life Shares

baby_boomer

Thursday's Times - Resolution board expected to meet today to consider Standard Life offer

"The board of Resolution is expected to meet today to consider a formal takeover proposal from Standard Life and Swiss Re, just hours ahead of a Takeover Panel deadline.

The Scottish insurer was last night understood to be putting the finishing touches to the proposal, to be made in partnership with the Swiss reinsurer, which could value Resolution at more than £4.9 billion.

The indicative offer, expected to be worth just over 720p a share, brings to a head a three-month battle for the closed life fund consolidator that started when Resolution announced an £8.4 billion all-paper merger with Friends Provident, the life insurer, in July. Resolution warned potential bidders that only a “compelling” rival offer would dissuade it from the tie-up, with all bids to be submitted by 4pm today........"

Standard, of course, is refusing to comment :rolleyes:

Telegraph - Resolution plans £2bn cash payout to scupper support for a Standard Life bid

Independent - Standard mulls last minute bid

FT - Resolution's desperate £2bn cash payout offer may open the way for Standard Life

FT - Deadline nears for Resolution approach

baby_boomer

Yahoo

It's what the market has been expecting, so no great moves.
FTSE up 1%, Standard Life up 1% to 282p.

Browntrout_2

reading the article in todays Independent;

The Scottish former mutual would get Resolution's active businesses, including Scottish Provident, while Swiss Re would combine Resolution's closed funds with its existing business in that sector.

A source close to Standard Life said: "If there is one thing we won't do, it is to overpay."

I guess we will not know until close of play today, either way Standard life have the cash to buy out Scottish Provident at the right price, and if they do this I would view this as positive, on the basis that cash is best invested in growing their core business, life and pensions.

So I'm a buyer either way, if they do not bid it is because there is little return, if they do, then their due diligence indicates a potential profit.

breaking news edit
Resolution has confirmed that Standard Life has made a £4.9 billion bid composed of 517p in cash and 0.715 Standard Life shares for each Resolution share. The proposal amounting to about 714p per share has not been accepted or rejected at this point, Resolution said.

baby_boomer

Yahoo

Standard falls 10p to 271p as its Resolution bid is confirmed

I can almost smell the enlarged management bonuses from here.

I couldn't get out at 340p+ because I was on holiday and then bottled out of selling @ 318p when I got back . It looks like the "long haul" beckons :rolleyes:.

Yahoo - Resolution gets a £4.9bn bid from Standard Life

Let's hope there's sound financial sense rather than macho board room posturing here. IIRC Resolution offered to buy Standard before its float for less than £2 a share :eek:. Is this locker room "big boys" payback time?

Reuters - Standard Life bids for Resolution

FT - Standard in Resolution approach

Update - Standard Life recovered to 276p by Thursday's close

How many shares were you buying, browntrout ?

baby_boomer

Evening Standard

"....Standard Life's shares dropped today, losing more than 1% as investors fretted about the inherent risks and chief executive Sandy Crombie's ability to bed-in such a big takeover....."

"......Roman Cizdyn, analyst at Oriel Securities, was cautious about whether Standard Life's offer was good for its own shareholders: 'It's more shares than I thought - around £1.3bn. It depends a lot on what parts of the Resolution business Swiss Re takes and what Standard Life takes in terms of valuing Standard Life.'

Nick Clarke, analyst at Charles Stanley said fears about Standard Life's recent fall in share price were overblown. 'It's harder for Resolution to reject this proposal,' said Clarke, pointing out Standard Life's offer is higher than Pearl's 691p bid....."

Roman, of course, is the same analyst that thought we should have sold our shares at all times in the first six months since they were worth less than the offer price :rolleyes:.

baby_boomer

It's not looking good .

Guardian – Dismay at Standard’s bid for Resolution
“Analysts and investors find fault with offer”

Scotsman – Market gives Standard’s bid the thumbs down
“Experts feared the Edinburgh-based insurer was deviating too far from its path of organic growth, with the potential takeover making no strategic sense.”

Scotsman - Analysts question deal
"Analyst Raghu Hariharan at Fox-Pitt, Kelton said the bid was not "enticing"... "For Standard Life it's a strategic mistake," he said. "There is no rationale for them to acquire what is basically a closed book - it makes no sense to me."

Telegraph comment
"Using devalued paper [our shares] to fund the offer looks like an expensive disguised rights issue" .

baby_boomer
The good news is that if Standard Life's shares fall further, their bid becomes worth less, and so has slightly less chance of going through. :idea: Which could mean the shares rise again afterwards . However we can't be sure of this as the majority of the bid - 5/7ths is in cash . Let's hope there's a counter bid that overtrumps Standard and the Standard board backs down in the face of this storm of criticism. But the trouble with testosterone fuelled executives is that they don't like losing face.

However there is always hope:
Times - Resolution ponders Standard's bid
"....Resolution has said that only a “compelling” bid would deter it from its current path of a tie-up with Friends Provident. Analysts said the bid was unlikely to be enough for Resolution to accept . Analysts have calculated that the merger of Resolution and Friends Provident would value Resolution shares at between 750p and 800p."

Telegraph - Standard's bid for Resolution is not a knock-out blow
But the extended deadline means that the Resolution board is taking it seriously.

And ominously
In the Herald
"... Trevor Moss, analyst at MF Global, commented: "The price [offered by Standard] is unattractive. Quite frankly it is pretty comparable to the level Pearl have bid in cash, which was soundly rejected by Resolution." Moss said Resolution was clearly trying to extract a higher price. "I think Standard Life have clearly made the point that they see a lot of synergies from doing a deal, it reads to me that this is a transaction they really want to do. On that basis, they would be silly to walk away."

# PLEASE Mr. Crombie, don't make a higher offer!

baby_boomer

baby_boomer wrote: »

The good news is that if Standard Life's shares fall further, their bid has less chance of going through.

The shares are certainly on the slide on Friday even though the FSTE100 was up 0.4%.

Yahoo - Standard slips a further 2.5% to 269p

Don't you love a management which knows how to add value :rolleyes: ?

baby_boomer

BBC - Resolution backs Standards initial bid

And Standard shares head back north to 284p.

Yahoo share price link

Update

Pearl raises its offer for Resolution to try to scupper Standard's bid

Looks like we could be in a bidding war.

This is Money - Pearl and Standard scrap for Resolution

Yorkshireman_3

baby_boomer wrote: »

BBC - Resolution backs Standards initial bid

And Standard shares head back north to 284p.

Yahoo share price link

Update

Pearl raises its offer for Resolution to try to scupper Standard's bid

Looks like we could be in a bidding war.

This is Money - Pearl and Standard scrap for Resolution

If pearl own 25% of shares and Standard life can't get agreement for 50% vote rather than 75% vote --- does this mean Standard won't get Resolution??:rolleyes:

10_66

This is the latest I could find about the bidding battle.

http://business.scotsman.com/banking.cfm?id=1733332007