The Lemon Fool

airbus330 wrote:Seems that Mr. Corbyn wants to nationalise it and give us all free broadband.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/uks-l ... 36407.html

He's got to win the election first. I think he's living in dreamland myself.

Ian.

British Telecom? It's almost 30 years since they become BT.

It's only Openreach they want to nationalise, not the whole of BT. John McDonnell was asked this morning if it was the only company they wanted to nationalise and he said Yes, which sounds positive for the other utilities at least.

That's given a bashing to quite a few people's pension shares.

It's actually a bit more than just Openreach, as McD said on Today this a.m. This from Yahoo Finance:

"To carry out its proposal, Labour said it would nationalise parts of BT, the country's biggest broadband and mobile phone provider. That would include its digital network arm Openreach, as well as parts of BT Technology, BT Enterprise and BT Consumer."

The mind boggles as to what shareholders (my family and I have quite large holdings from way back) would receive in terms of bonds to compensate for the devaluation of their plundered BT shares. How on earth would that be calculated? The fact that the shares have only dropped a fairly small amount this morning suggests that the market thinks it is unlikely to happen. However, we mustn't forget that the last election produced a different outcome from what had been expected.

richfool wrote:That's given a bashing to quite a few people's pension shares.

Really? Define bashing. I presume you imply BT shares which appear to be barely changed, or did you mean something else?

They'd been bashed so much already that there wasn't much of them left to bash which is why Labour would not be paying much in the way of compensation.

Bouleversee wrote:
The mind boggles as to what shareholders (my family and I have quite large holdings from way back) would receive in terms of bonds to compensate for the devaluation of their plundered BT shares. How on earth would that be calculated?

I think how it could be made to work would be to demerge all the parts of BT the Government wanted and then buy out all the shareholders. Alternatively demerge the parts they didn't want and buy out the rump.

As to how it would be calculated, to avoid international legal challenge they would have to use similar methods to those in recent corporate reconstructions. In other words try to place a market value on the split enterprises.

Another approach would be to nationalise BT in its entirety and then float as a new Company or make a private sale of the non-Broadband leftovers.
(edit) BT market cap at the moment is a shade under £ 20 billion, so that should be the order of magnitude we all taking about. (/edit)

But I don't imagine they've thought it through.

That's one thing missing on TLF as compared to TMF. On TMF there were regular posters who would defend Labour policy no matter how daft.

Their intention is to issue bonds but at what value?

Bouleversee wrote:Their intention is to issue bonds but at what value?

If we were still in the EU when this happens, the probable supremacy of EU law is likely to require Bonds to be issued at a price reflecting the market value of the assets being taken over. Outside the EU and in the context where a Marxist inspired government could write its own law allowing confiscation, who knows?

dealtn wrote:

richfool wrote:That's given a bashing to quite a few people's pension shares.

Really? Define bashing. I presume you imply BT shares which appear to be barely changed, or did you mean something else?

( Bashing = beating= knocked down in price).

According to Bloomberg, BT shares were amongst the largest fallers first thing this morning, though I note they have since pulled back somewhat, - currently down 1.63%.

Yahoo finance says they fell 4% first thing.

Shares in BT dropped nearly 4% and TalkTalk put the sale of one of its businesses on hold after the Labour Party announced plans to turn broadband into a public service.

Jeremy Corbyn is due to officially announce the new policy in a speech in Lancaster on Friday morning.

Labour has costed the policy at £20 billion, saying it will deliver free full-fibre internet to every home and business by 2030 if it wins the General Election.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bt-sh ... 05691.html

richfool wrote:

dealtn wrote:

richfool wrote:That's given a bashing to quite a few people's pension shares.

Really? Define bashing. I presume you imply BT shares which appear to be barely changed, or did you mean something else?

( Bashing = beating= knocked down in price).

According to Bloomberg, BT shares were amongst the largest fallers first thing this morning, though I note they have since pulled back somewhat, - currently down 1.63%.

Ok, fair enough, bashing to me would have been far more dramatic, but each to their own. For what it's worth when I commented earlier they were down about 0.5p, or about 0.25% broadly in line with the FTSE-100, though I see things have deteriorated mildly since. Given the market is down mildly, and some other stocks are faring even worse my interpretation is the market is broadly ignoring it, or at least giving it less attention than the media appears to be.

My time frame on investment, and what I think is important to returns, is very much longer than a one day, or initial, response. For me this falls very much in a grouping where most of such headlines get mentally filed - namely it's "noise, not news".

I'm invested here, in typical contrarian fashion, as a value play, and concede such noise might delay the potential turnaround in sentiment, and my likelihood of success and time frame in realising it.

More interesting, to me at least, is the other news released today that seems to have slipped the media net.

BT says it "had won exclusive rights to broadcast all matches of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and new Europa Conference League until 2024." The cost looks like £400m per year. Not sure if that is an overpayment, or not. Auctions typically come with a "winner's curse" after all.

In an age where the Amazon, Sky, Amazons, Apples etc. of the world are rewarded, and well regarded, with respect to content, and the old-school incumbents such as ITV and BT are seen as distinctly "un-sexy", this at least keeps them in the race over the next 5 years.

dealtn wrote:More interesting, to me at least, is the other news released today that seems to have slipped the media net.

BT says it "had won exclusive rights to broadcast all matches of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and new Europa Conference League until 2024."...

RNS here: https://www.investegate.co.uk/bt-group- ... 02285801T/

3rd Quarter Results here. https://www.investegate.co.uk/bt-group- ... 00113598B/

COVID-19 update

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, BT Group has late this afternoon tested positive for COVID-19 and as a result has followed the Public Health England protocols to self-isolate.

BT is now working closely with Public Health England to undertake a full deep clean of relevant parts of its Group headquarters and will ensure those employees who have had contact with Philip are appropriately advised.

Philip Jansen said: "Having felt slightly unwell I decided as a precaution to be tested. As soon as the test results were known I isolated myself at home."

https://www.investegate.co.uk/bt-group- ... 00010181G/

If the over 60s are most at risk, we may see an improvement in BT's pension situation. Without which, they remain bargepole for me.

V8

BT AND COMPUTACENTER IN TALKS ON THE SALE OF BT'S DOMESTIC OPERATIONS IN FRANCE

BT and Computacenter today announce that they have entered exclusive negotiations on the acquisition of BT's domestic operations in France by Computacenter. The transaction is subject to consultations with works councils over a minimum period of two months. This process will adhere to any additional French Government guidance issued as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It will then be subject to regulatory approval, with completion expected to take place by the end of 2020.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/bt-group- ... 00083474H/

Finals here, including mention of dividend suspension, and rebased thereafter;

https://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperforma ... /index.htm

Also on HYP Practical Board.

It seems rumours have been circling around about a partial sale of Openreach again. Should this develop into something stronger it's hard not to see this as positive for the share price, unlocking value.