Percy had suggested I start a thread on the UK market.


The UK has most of my sharemarket time at the moment. We do not have to consider tax implications as we live in the M.E, however, we have invested in the UK market for many many years, a good portion from when we were in our home country (NZ). I work via growing a portfolio and then "banking" some profits over a certain level back into my NZ property mortgages at favourable exchange rates (mostly).


Tips and ideas come from three main sources: iii dot co dot uk and its front page, Investor's Chronicle (podcasts, free reading and sometimes I buy their weekly e-magazine for coffee time reading), fool dot co dot uk plus many other links (FT dot come, Questor and some dubious sources. All buying and selling are through TD Waterhouse international (think they are being or have been bought by interactive investor). I only buy and sell once or maybe twice per quarter (to manage fees).


I use UK dot advfn dot com to get a lot of my first screen data and see the bulletin boards (iPad app is the best way for me as the site is not user friendly). For subsequent screens, as always, I go to the company financials.


Currently I have one disaster (BON) and one high flyer (TRI) plus around eight other holds. My historical straight-lined return p.a. is 18%. Current holding return for this calendar year is zero as BON.L has successfully and gradually eaten my gains. However, as I am not wanting to realise this loss and I think there will be a recovery, I am going to stubbornly hold on (paying a 4% yield on my purchase price and around an 8% yield on current value), if you want to take a risk on 50+ women’s retail, it may be worth looking at (80p now).


My requirements are for (generally): a low debt level, must pay a dividend of at least 2% (targeting 5%), a "regular" company (i.e. One that fits my metrics and I can get my brain around), price to sales less than 1.0, and a depressed PE ratio. Of course the usual quick and current ratio screens apply. If these metrics fit, I then apply the old CCVI and look for a level of above 15 (I like 25). CCVI = ((eps + dps)/ $sp)+((eps-dps)/$NTA or $BV).


Rather that go through historical reasons for buying etc, I shall merely put down my most recent purchase and the shares I am currently considering.


MANX.L : this is MANX Telecom and is domiciled in the Isle of Mann. It is held by a few high performing equity funds (James UK Equity Income Fund) and I like the Isle of Mann! First look on 3/11/16. PE = 13 and DY5.2%, CCVI = 17 (on the low side) and P:S up at 3.0 (too high for my liking) ROCE 10.3%. BUT they are new, were down from high when I bought, conservative with some really really good future plans. I dumped in my profits from UDG healthcare (ran from GBP4.60 up to GBP6.95 then sold as I had a bit too much overall in healthcare to turn this into a longer-term hold). I only bought a small value parcel (GBP4K) as it is on the AIM so my buy and sell fees are so much less and this cost me GBP16 to buy).


A day prior to purchasing MANX.L, I did buy into KIE which was a much larger holding as it met most of my metrics (CCVI =30, low debt and higher ROCE), I also liked their plans (was rewarded walking around Canary Wharf on holiday at Xmas to see their name emblazoned on some “works”).


I don’t have any more spare funds to invest until the end of February so I am researching: PhotoMe, a potential re-entry into AMS (a medical wound care company that I was in a couple of years ago 75p up to 1.35 and sold), ALU (but debt is too high but it has done a recent run), and packaging company MNDI.


So this is merely my activity and it keeps me busy: I have time on my hands to wait for recoveries but I am also taking a bit of a cautious approach (balancing a tad) as I want to be able to buy a house to live in in the UK if all goes belly-up here (means I don’t need to sell NZ property and shares).