Tender Offer for Town Centre Securities PLC (TCS)

[Bouleversee]

As announced in Mr C's Small Caps, Town Centre have a Tender Offer at 185p. Does anyone else hold or have a view on whether to accept this, which could be subject to scaling down, of course. I paid 334.5p for my 886 shares on Jan. 1 2005 and the s.p. was 698p in September 2006 (now 176.25p, having been as low as 129p on July 5)) so I am not exactly rushing to accept. However, I have no idea where they are likely to go from here. Any views? They are in certificated form and I could use the loss if I transferred them to an ISA via a dealing account as I have some profitable holdings I would like to transfer. Would it be the date on the transfer which would be relevant or the date the ISA manager got around to doing the sale and buy back? Perhaps that is a question for another board?

[Gerry557]

I did consider buying more just to sell and split the difference when first announced as I already had some holdings so would be guaranteed a minimum amount of sale. Looking at todays price its closed that gap.

Personally Im not in mind to sell. Yes the SP has risen and my average is much lower than yours. I assume that was part of the aim to close the discount. I suppose it depends on what happens after the offer closes. Having waited all this time, I suspect you could just continue and wait for better times.

The SP may fall again but the under pinning company should be better off. The earnings will be the same but 7% less shares to spread it over. The yield is currently low but was expected to rise over the next couple of years even before this action. Covid has played its part and hopefully things getting back to more normal times.

Liquidity and the spread might be issues, the Ziffs not taking part means its reducing the other shareholders availability. Maybe they can release some of their holdings at a later date and still keep control to increase the pool. I suspect it flies under the radar of most investors. Some days there are only a couple of trades. There are also lots of single digit trades or just one share whatever that is about.

The SP has been much lower than 129, I bought some below a quid. I also paid more originally too when times "looked good" So as I dont have a better home for the money, this looks to be improving, PF balance etc I think I will sit on my hands. Still if we all do that ...........

[Bouleversee]

Many thanks, Gerry. I shall probably sit on my hands, too. It will be interesting to see what happens to the s.p. if few people accept the tender. TCS could still buy in the market if they want to. I wonder what the fundamental value of the shares is actually. As the directors are not taking part in the Tender Offer, my gut feeling is that they know that the underlying value of the shares is higher than this offer price or just that they are testing the market with a view to taking the company private. There must be a reason for not just buying in the market. I'd like to get them into my ISA and crystallise the loss before they go up further but need to consider the whole picture of my certificated and other non-ISA shares. Not enough hours in the day.

[Alaric]

Would it be the date on the transfer which would be relevant or the date the ISA manager got around to doing the sale and buy back?

Whether you hold shares certified or not is irrelevant. The ISA manager has to sell the shares at a market price, notionally or physically transfer the cash against your £ 20,000 annual ISA allowance and then buy back.

[Bouleversee]

Would it be the date on the transfer which would be relevant or the date the ISA manager got around to doing the sale and buy back?

Whether you hold shares certified or not is irrelevant. The ISA manager has to sell the shares at a market price, notionally or physically transfer the cash against your £ 20,000 annual ISA allowance and then buy back.

Thank you, Alaric. Being almost permanently brainfogged these days, I was thinking that transferring them to my dealing account would count as a disposal but it's really just a change of address, isn't it, and the disposal isn't till the ISA manager has to sell them to get them into my ISA so, as you say, unlike when I gift shares, the transfer date to the dealing acct. is irrelevant. I actually have a lot of accumulated cash in my ISAs so won't need to use any ISA allowance. I want to reduce the value of my holdings with IHT in mind but don't want to miss out on any gains which might be in the pipeline. I suppose I could just hang on to TCS but till I have time to do calculations I don't know what the tax position will be on non-ISA divs. or cgt. on those disposals which include some large gains as well as losses and it remains to be seen which of those will recover. Unfortunately, my biggest losses are in the ISAs, realised and unrealised. Too many balls in the air at the moment.

[Gerry557]

Many thanks, Gerry. I shall probably sit on my hands, too. It will be interesting to see what happens to the s.p. if few people accept the tender. TCS could still buy in the market if they want to. I wonder what the fundamental value of the shares is actually. As the directors are not taking part in the Tender Offer, my gut feeling is that they know that the underlying value of the shares is higher than this offer price or just that they are testing the market with a view to taking the company private. There must be a reason for not just buying in the market. I'd like to get them into my ISA and crystallise the loss before they go up further but need to consider the whole picture of my certificated and other non-ISA shares. Not enough hours in the day.

If few accept the SP might fall as the metrics will go back to the way they were. I don't know why they didn't just buyback in the market cheaper. Probably lack of liquidity and it might take too long.

From memory the NAV was just under or just over 3 quid so quite a discount even after the recent rise to the tender price. If they go private, they would loose REIT status and they have effective control anyway.

[Bouleversee]

Thanks again, Gerry. TBH I had picked up the privatisation possibility from a blog I happened on earlier today.

[Gerry557]

Thanks again, Gerry. TBH I had picked up the privatisation possibility from a blog I happened on earlier today.

Do you have a Linky, ta

[Bouleversee]

Gerry: https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/londo ... share-chat

scroll down to l5/7 at 0800. I must confess I didn't have time to read all of the posts but there seemed to be more anti than pro the offer price.