Meeting:

Monthly Meeting  - May 2006

 

Held at:

9th Floor, Rail House, Crewe

Date:

23rd May 2006

 

 

Time:

17:15 – 17:40

Prepared by

Dave G

 

Chairperson:

Adrian T

 

Present:

Adrian T

Dave G

Kit P

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies:

Chris B

Simon B

Richard W

 

 

Chairman’s Acceptance of Minutes

 


_____________________________________________


____ / _____ / ____

Signature

Date

 

 

 

1           NEXT MEETING

To be arranged – possible dates to be sent out by email.

2           Minutes of previous meeting

Accepted.

3           ACTIONS FROM PREVIOUS MEETING

3.1          Actions Closed Since Last Meeting

Ref.

Description & Progress

Status

AT/0718/01

Issue Chairman’s annual statement for 2005 via email

0810: No progress

0921: No progress

1017: No progress

1128: No progress

1219: No progress

0117: No progress

0215: No progress

0314: No progress

0427: No progress

DROPPED

SB/0427/01

Send out link to the QINETIQ documentation

COMPLETE

3.2          Actions Carried forward to Next Meeting                         

See end of these minutes.

4           Treasurer’s Report

4.1          Monthly Report Summary

See separate report for detail. 

Highlights/Lowlights:  A very poor month with holdings down 7.6% on the month which represents £3.5k – almost exactly wiping out the gains we improved by during April.  The FTSE during the month is down 7.3%.  Unit value down from 735.503 to 688.824.  We have £3,113.06 available as non-mechanical cash with an additional £8,451.35 in cash alternative investment trusts.  Having also sold ISG from the fundamental portfolio at the weekend, we’re actually now over £5k in non-mechanical cash and over £13k in total non-mechanical cash or cash investments.

4.2          Matters Arising From Report

None

5           PORTFOlio Management

5.1          Monthly Money Management Checks

Fundamental portfolio is still showing as “too low” with 15% held in this portfolio against strategic minimum of 25%.

Speculative portfolio is only 5% which isn’t “too low” because the lower limit is 0% but represents only one holding.

Cash is now 22% which is approaching the upper limit of 25% so buy proposals are encouraged.

5.2          Mechanical Portfolio

A poor month, down 5.3% but at least we outperformed the market!  7.5% compared to the market’s 4% rise.

Dart is due to be sold from the Growth side this month and with Hunting having been sold during the month as it breached its stop loss, this leaves two vacancies.   Top candidate is Character Group which is in the Media sector and is involved with the design, development and international distribution of digital cameras, toys, games and giftware.  For the second slot, we already hold BETonSPORTS and Interior Services (in the value side) so the first valid candidate would be Laura Ashley, the clothing retailer.

Whilst no sale is due in the Value side, we still have one vacancy but there are no current candidates to fill it.  However, Wyndham Press takeover has gone unconditional with the expectation of going through by the end of May so, if we were to consider that as “sold” then this would mean that there were two Value vacancies.  In these circumstances, then the compromise filters/rankings would apply and the top candidate for selection would be M&C Saatchi, the advertising agency.

A discussion took place over whether or not to consider Wyndham as sold and therefore buy M&C Saatchi.   On the one hand, we are certain that the takeover will go through so, on the basis of “better in than out” then considering Wyndham as sold would allow us to make a purchase and avoid having 2 vacancies carried forward to next month.   On the other hand, waiting till next month would have two proper vacancies and it could be that some real value candidates could come through and this would be preferable to the Value side portfolio becoming filled with compromise candidates.  On balance, the decision was taken that as Wyndham still appeared in the Treasurer’s Report as a holding then we should consider Wyndham as not yet sold.  There will therefore be two Value vacancies next month.

It was suggested that the Strategy be further modified to use the above rationale to determine whether a holding in a takeover situation should be considered “sold”.   Dave to update the Strategy.

The table below now reflects the sell situation for each mechanical holding.  The appropriate sell condition (i.e. “Anniversary” or “Sell If Below”) is shown in bold.

Company

Portfolio

“Anniversary”

Purchase Price

Target Price

Trailing Stop Loss

High Since Purchase

Target Met?

Sell If Below

Dart Group

Growth

May-06

295.70

443.55

44.36

427.50

No

443.55

Alumasc

Value

Jun-06

158.50

237.75

23.78

182.50

No

237.75

Charter

Growth

Aug-06

326.26

489.39

48.94

860.50

Yes

811.56

Wyndeham Press

Value

Oct-06

114.43

171.65

17.16

154.00

No

171.65

McAlpine (Alfred)

Value

Oct-06

347.97

521.96

52.20

499.75

No

521.96

Metnor Group

Growth

Nov-06

219.83

329.75

32.97

260.00

No

329.75

First Choice Holidays

Value

Jan-07

233.99

350.99

35.10

249.75

No

350.99

Interior Services Group

Value

Feb-07

259.70

389.55

38.96

302.50

No

389.55

BETonSPORTS

Growth

Mar-07

159.44

239.16

23.92

171.00

No

239.16

Stanley Leisure

Growth

Mar-07

781.00

1171.50

117.15

781.00

No

1171.50

 

 

5.3          Monthly Reports For Each Company in Fundamental Portfolio

CodaSciSys

HOLD – Not yet met sell criteria (see table in 5.6 below)