Rate my SIPP - ITV high conviction

ooSTEVEoo

Hi Juno, you still holding on here?

I’ve bought a few large further chunks on this continued weakness. The first was a few weeks ago which was obviously another bad move, then the latest today. Fingers crossed the bottom must be near. The chart shows that this can easily jump 10p in a day or two on good news. I’m getting nervous though as I’m also massively over exposed here.

My latest holdings…

SIPP 524,944

ISA 152,389

GIA 63,535

Total: 740,868

It represents about 22% of my total portfolio. So not as invested as you but still enough to make me feel really uncomfortable. Are you still hanging on and what’s your plan going forward? I’m not massively down. Each account above is just less than 10% down but that’s still a fair loss compared to gains we could have had elsewhere. The dividends have obviously helped though. The decline in Ad revenue and the risk of AI content and the slow demise of linear TV makes me worry this has been a disastrous investment. I still think Studios will yield enough value to save us though.

What you thinking?

kempiejon

I see we've been declining in value for a few months now and today I heard the culture secretary wants to look at competition/choice implication of the Sky buyout. Both Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom mentioned. The troube with these value type calls is you can wait a long time, still nice to take a divi while we hang about.

Juno_Moneta

Hi Steve, yes still here! Keeping my head down due to the markets negative reaction to the Sky bid for ITV’s M&E division, but since you ask here’s a brief update.

SIPP holding now 1,221,929 and thanks in part to the current weakness, and a spare £20k allowance, my ISA also now holds 92,300 so total ITV position is 1,314,229 shares.

Without wishing to sound too delusional(!) I do still consider myself to be in my “accumulation phase” - so the weakness is not entirely unwelcome. My employer monthly SIPP contributions still add to my position, and also my ongoing dividend reinvestment contributions - as usual for years.

So the 1.7p interim dividend is now ex, and that will pay £1,569 into my ISA and £20,772 into my SIPP in November - and you guessed it - this will all be used to add to my ITV position. What price I pay in Nov is anyone’s guess, whether that’s still in the 60s or back into the 70s.

I am therefore actually hoping the weakness can persist until at least April when I can put another £20k into my ISA and May when ITV will pay its final dividend before the “potential” Sky deal closes. This may or may not be 3.3p and basically if I can get all these contributions in at current levels I am hoping to hold around 1.4m+ shares by the time the deal could close (yes if approved) and any special dividend is declared (yes not guaranteed).

In summary yes still holding!!!

Good luck with your large position too - although I notice you hold some in a non-tax-sheltered GIA which seems not ideal given the potential for a large special dividend - have you considered doing a “Bed & ISA” in April to move some of the GIA to ISA - you might just beat the SKY deal timing and potentially avoid some dividend tax…

Oh and kempiejon - the culture secretary “minded to intervene” news is entirely predicted and public knowledge - McCall herself said right back in July that “ITV is expecting Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to issue a Public Interest Intervention notice in due course” in this article:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/itv-first-results-sky-deal-sharehold-buyback-studios-tv-1236660733/

So waiting to see what happens after Nandy’s 20th October response deadline… more volatility ahead!

Finally - the current £100m buyback is doing a great job reducing the voting rights at current price levels too - which is a small but welcome boost.

Juno_Moneta

For anyone not familiar with a “Bed & ISA” / “Bed & Pension” :

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/articles/latest-thoughts/how-it-works/what-is-bed-and-isa-and-bed-and-pension