Vodafone

derrick

Right, I have just spoken to Computershare and it turns out that Squaregain gave me some bad info, I will get 3014 "B" shares at 150 each, total £452.10.
Therefore using my figures above I have lost £22.92. i.e.

Had 3014 @ £126 = £3797.64

Now have 2637 @ 126=....... £3322.62
Plus 3014 "B" shares @ 15p = £452.10
Total.................................£3774.72

A loss @ the above prices of £22.92

Plus the extra loss as I purchased @ £1.45, and was prepared to wait a bit longer in the hope that the shares bounce back, but no, Vodafone compulsory sell 377 of my shares @ a deflated price, what a con trick!

cheerfulcat wrote:

derrick, Murtle's right, you should have 3014 " B " shares which would make you nearly even. There is some further discussion on the Motley Fool Vodafone board.

Yes I had been given wrong info by Squaregain, but have still lost money,see above.

Chrismaths

I've got to butt in here. No-one has robbed you - by your logic no company would ever pay a dividend - as that is an 'enforced' return of capital. Vodafone could have paid you a dividend of 15p with the same effect - they just gave you the option to save some tax, and then consolidated the shares to keep the share price nominally similar.

Selling a share means you sell part of the whole company - with vodafone that is the network, the overseas operations, cash on the balance sheet and the userbase - receiving a return of capital means that you keep everything except the cash, which ends up in your bank account.

derrick

A dividend is different, you can have the choice to purchase shares or take the cash, they do not forcibly sell your shares as they have done in this case.

You have your opinion and I have mine, I have been fiorced to sell at 126, when I did not want to and prefer to wait until the shares bounce back up to my purchase price of 145p, they might not, but that should be my choice not theirs, therefore I HAVE lost money and been robbed.

Charlton_Taz

If you want to keep the money invested in Vodafone shares, just take the payment you receive and buy some more shares!

cheerfulcat

You still own the same proportion of the company as before.

derrick

Charlton_Taz wrote:

If you want to keep the money invested in Vodafone shares, just take the payment you receive and buy some more shares!

That will involve dealing charges therefore losing me even more money

derrick

cheerfulcat wrote:

You still own the same proportion of the company as before.

Can't see how that works, I had 3014 shares, now have 2637

The 15p "B" shares are not tradeable only to sell.

Chrismaths

You have not 'sold' any shares - the shares undertook a consolidation. I've changed the figures to make it more simple, but this is what has happened:

Before: you owned 8000 shares out of 800,000,000 (0.001%)
Now: you own 7000 shares out of 700,000,000 (0.001%)

So you own the same proportion of the company.

This is just a dividend - indeed there was the option to receive either a dividend or a capital distribution.

If you hold 5 shares worth £1 each, and it then pays a dividend of 20p each, the share is then worth (all other things being equal) 80p. If they the conduct a 4 for 5 consolidation, you then have 4 shares each worth £1. That is all that has happened. You calculation took a price of £1.26(??!!). In fact, the price the day before the capital event was £1.15, and the day after £1.19.

Vodafone were nice enough to give us the chance to undertake some tax planning, instead of just lumbering higher rate taxpayers with an income tax liability - just look at it as a dividend, then calm down and breathe again.

Very soon those B shares will magically turn into cash, you are not supposed to sell them - they are just backed by cash, not the business.

cheerfulcat

Can't see how that works, I had 3014 shares, now have 2637

The 15p "B" shares are not tradeable only to sell.

Yes, I know; the B shares are just a way of getting the money to you tax efficiently. But while numerically you have fewer shares, the proportion of the company which they represent remains the same.

derrick

I have "lost" 377 shares that now I cannot hold onto until they make back up my purchase price of 145p,(unless I purchase again and incur dealing costs), if everything is to remain the same why did they not leave well alone and let the shareholders decide? given a choice I would have left mine where they where.

Alright I have not actually lost them, but they are only worth the equivalent of the share price when "sold" (£1.15/£1.19, I was given the figure of £1.26 by Squaregain, the nominees, but the figures are not that relevant as the equations will be similar) therefore "losing" the difference between that and the 145 purchase price.

We are not going to agree,the small shareholder has been shafted again by the enforced sale of shares at a highly deflated price and the only winners will be the fatcat bosses.