Meeting:

Monthly Meeting - June 2000

 

Held at:

Crewe Arms, Crewe

Date:

27th June 2000

 

 

Time:

17:15 – 18:45

Prepared by

Dave G

 

Chairperson:

Richard W

 

Present:

Chris B

 

 

Dave G

 

 

Geoff O’F

 

 

Kit P

 

 

Richard W

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies:

Adrian B

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution:

As above

 

 

Chairman’s Acceptance of Minutes

 


_____________________________________________


____ / _____ / ____

Signature

Date

 

 

 

 

1.              Minutes of previous meeting

The minutes from the monthly meeting of 25th May were accepted.

2.              Next Meeting

The next meeting is the AGM.

17:00 – 19:00  Wednesday 28th July.  Venue Chris’s house (possibly).


3.              Actions from previous meeting

3.1            Actions Closed since last meeting

Ref.

Description & Progress

Target Date

RW/0415/05

As part of improving the records we keep on companies, set up and maintain a file on Science Systems

0510: No progress

0628: No progress

0726: No progress

0827: No progress

0916: No progress

1019: No progress

1124: No progress

1221: No progress

0111: No progress

0216: No progress

0322: No progress

0419: No progress

0525: No progress.  It was remarked upon that it wasn’t big or clever to have actions lasting longer than a year!

0627: Action dropped in favour of an approach to be implemented at the next meeting whereby each club member reports back progress/news on a holding.   See action ALL/0627/01

DROPPED

ALL/0111/06

Consider a suitable speculative investment for the remaining £400 of Mirror competition prize money.

0216: No progress

0322: No progress

0419: No progress

0525: RW email had suggested looking at Warrants and Templeton in particular.  Agreed to discuss as part of item 6.2 in the minutes.  

0627: Decision taken to purchase Templeton Emerging warrants (see Portfolio Management section in minutes)

CLOSED

CB&RW/0525/04

Sell Total Systems if price rises to >90p with no discernible reason to account for it.

0627: Sold at 90p

CLOSED

DG/0525/06

Find and distribute the Motley Fool article about the “selling when the price doubles” strategy

CLOSED

3.2            Actions Carried forward to Next Meeting                                  

See end of these minutes

4.                           Treasurer’s Report

4.1            REPORT SUMMARY

CB supplied his report.

The report showed that the net total assets at £13,665.08 and unit value of 457.696p.

The current net value if realised on the Science Systems shares was calculated as £3188.40 (a profit of £2,161.06 (or 125% APR) so far on the deal).

The current net value if realised on the ARM Holdings shares was calculated as £5434.00 (a profit of £4,924.51 (or 675% APR) so far on the deal).

The current net value if realised on the Parity shares was calculated as £447.40 (a loss of £551.48 (or -112% APR) so far on the deal).

The current net value if realised on the Atlantic Caspian shares was calculated as £289.50 (a loss of -£110.50 (or -56% APR) so far on the deal).

The current net value if realised on the Cable & Wireless shares was calculated as £912.00 (a profit of £136.00 (or 39% APR) so far on the deal).

The current net value if realised on the Tibbett & Britten shares was calculated as £1180.00 (a profit of £182.30 (or 111% APR) so far on the deal).

4.2            MATTERS ARISING FROM REPORT

None.

5.              Lucky Llama competition

RW issued his  report. 

RW takes the Llama with a gain of 17.25% during the period.

RW suggested that it may be a good time to rejig the competition as we've been running it for 2 years, it's approaching our financial year end, and there's a possibility that apathy has set in as there haven't been many trades recently.     It was suggested that we could put aside a small pot of money to begin with and give (say) £500 in Lucky Llama funds to any club member coming to a meeting with a real (i.e. non-fantasy) buy proposal.

We could also consider introducing a real monetary prize onto the competition.

RW to consider rule changes for the AGM.

All have until end of Friday 27th June to send in buy/sell requests to be processed at the weekend. 

6.              Portfolio Management

6.1            Stop Loss Triggers

All holdings (other than the just purchased Tibbett & Britten) had invoked the 20% stop-loss trigger so discussion on each was necessary.  It was again agreed generally that whilst market would continue to be volatile, it was still worth hanging on.  Same principles as discussed as part of the 22nd March meeting were again raised (see those minutes for commentary).   However, taking each stock in turn…..

Parity

Whilst fall has been pretty significant (down over 50% since purchase) current realisable value is less than £500 so isn’t necessarily worth selling – might as well hold on for recovery knowing that most we could further lose would be less than £500.  HOLD

Atlantic Caspian

Is only worth less than £300 to us if we sell now so, again, worth holding to see if the upturn eventually happens.  Not worth selling out just for £300.  HOLD

ARM Holdings

Nothing negative in the news about ARM.  Interim results expected on 17th July.  HOLD.

Science Systems

Still has potential to be very big.  No change in fundamentals.  HOLD.

Cable & Wireless

No particular reason to sell - still sticking to its strategy of focussing on business users.  HOLD

 

6.2            New Buy Proposals

No formal buy proposals submitted.

KP had been considering Storehouse as they are expecting a cash distribution of 20p per share in August, they are due to be rebranding to Mothercare and are setting up a Mothercare internet service.

KP also interested in Marconi which has almost entirely divested itself of its defence contracts.

A discussion took place on warrants with a view to purchasing some as a speculative punt.  As such, emerging market is suitably volatile and warrants are risky too so Templeton Emerging fits the bill.  It satisfies the "number crunching" criteria too such as having more than 3 years to run, capitalisation of >£5m and gearing >2.  It has 4 years to run so we can afford to sit it out for a while if it doesn't make short term gains.

CB proposed buying £400 worth of Templeton Emerging warrants.  RW seconded.  No need for a buy proposal as it was a speculative punt from the spare Mirror competition money.  Unanimous decision taken to make purchase. 

6.3            Sell Proposals

None.

7.              Competitions

Our Mail on Sunday tip for June had been Surgical Innovations but it’s lack of spectacular (indeed any) price movement makes it unlikely to be the winner.

Our B/Bear entry for the Independent competition from the construction sector performed poorly with the B making a small rise but the bear making a large rise!!

We hadn’t entered the Express competition as the person in the Express that runs the competition has left!

Mirror competition was entered last week.

8.              AOB

CB to prepare accounts for audit prior to AGM

AB and GO'F to audit the accounts for the AGM.


Actions carried forward to next meeting

Ref.

Description & Progress

Target Date

CB/0916/02

Increase Market Master direct debit to reflect recent increases in subscriptions

1019: Awaited any late requests for changes to subscriptions before increasing direct debit.

1124: No progress

1221: No progress

0111: No progress

0216: No progress

0322: No progress

0419: No progress

0525: No progress but agreed that this action would be progressed as soon as bankers had been changed.

0627: Change of banker is in progress – direct debits to be adjusted thereafter

26/07/00

ALL/1221/07

Consider what we could spend some of the Mirror prize money on to improve our education (e.g. books, subscriptions, data, etc.)

0111: Agreed it would be sensible to spend approx £200 on furthering our education.  All to consider what it could be useful to buy.

0216: RW looked at TechInvest newsletter and it is OK but unlikely that we will act on its tips straight away.  Consideration of purchase of InvestorEase is a possibility though ShareScope is worthy of a look into also.  Agreed to carry  forward action to next meeting

0322: Financial Freebies website has some potential ideas.  DG said that he was considering whether to attend one of the recently advertised Proshare seminars.  The Leeds one is 16th April.  All agreed that the club should cover the cost of this (£19.50) if DG wished to attend, as long as he wrote a report to summarise the seminar.

0419: RW would like to wait for an update to ShareScope in order to re-evaluate packages.

0525: RW email had stated that ShareScope was not worth pursuing but proposed that we purchase InvestorEase.  Proposal was that RW pays half the cost and the club pays the other half.  This was unanimously agreed.  RW to arrange purchase (see action RW/0525/02).   KP had noticed that Motley Fool had advertised an investment information manual which the club may wish to purchase.  KP to investigate further.

0626: KP sent out the link to the Motley Fool page.  Action kept open to keep us thinking about what we could spend the money on

26/07/00

DG/1221/08

Send details of useful URLs to club members with brief description of each

0111: No progress

0216: CB and RW have suggested some useful URLs.  RW added that if you register (free) with www.fool.co.uk, the “MyFool” page presents some useful links.

0322: DG supplied a handout from SHARES magazine with some reviewed websites but action is still outstanding

0419: DG to put links on RSIC Website

0525: No progress since last meeting

0627: No progress – Website still needs updating

26/07/0\0

DG/0525/01

Put annual reports list onto website

0627: No progress

26/07/00

RW/0525/02

Arrange purchase of InvestorEase, half of cost being covered by the club.

0627: In progress – likely to be approx £11.75 per month

26/07/00

CB/0525/03

Complete tax form 1A5 for the club

0627: No progress

30/09/00

DG/0525/05

Add a new box to the Buy Proposal form to allow the Target Price level to be recorded.

0627: No progress

26/07/00

ALL/0627/01

As part of the Portfolio Management item on each of the future club meetings, each member to have previously submitted (by the Monday of the week of each meeting) a brief report summarising any news/analysis on one of our holdings.  In order that all the portfolio was covered, the following allocation of responsibilities was agreed:-

Chris B to look after ARM
Richard W to look after Science Systems
Geoff O’F to look after Atlantic Caspian
Dave G to look after Tibbet & Britten
Kit P to look after Cable & Wireless
Adrian B to look after Parity

All to produce their first summary reports by Monday before next meeting.

24/07/00

RW/0627/02

Consider rule changes for the Lucky Llama competition (possibly including incentives for real buy proposals and real cash prizes)

26/07/00

CB/0627/03

Purchase £400 of Templeton Emerging Warrants

26/07/00

CB/0627/04

Prepare accounts so that they can be audited prior to the AGM

14/07/00

AB&GOF/0627/05

Audit the accounts prior to AGM

26/07/00