COA - Coats Group plc (formerly GPG - Guinness Peat Group Plc)

[Gryffyn]

big sales are often at a discount - remember hanover selling out of twr?

would like to know the parties though

[Gryffyn]

Seems to have stabilised at 219 - 220.

[Cooper]

DJ MARKET TALK: GPG Seller Rothschild -Source Near Deal



2345 GMT [Dow Jones] Seller of 2.2% stake in Guinness Peat Group (GPG.NZ) is

London's Rothschild investment bank, according to source with knowledge of sale,

scuttling earlier market speculation that seller was U.S. fund Franklin Templeton. Source

says Rothschild "has done very well" out of its holding in GPG, which it picked

up as part of GPG's acquisition of UK-based Coats last year. GPG shares holding up

well after sale done at discount price of NZ$2.12, stock now down 1% at NZ$2.20 (POR)

[Gryffyn]

That makes better reading thanks coop.

[Fish Broker]

I don't understand much about TA - but looking at the GPG graph, is it forming a wedge? - What does that mean? - positive I assume if it breaks out on the upside?

Can anyone comment...

[Snow Leopard]

Fish Broker, I know nothing about TA but I think you should draw a line between the lows of mar 03 and nov 04, continue it on into the future and accept it is currently in an uptrend

[limegreen]

It looks more to me like a level of resistance (red line) that has been broken, which may be providing support. Drawing in an uptrend (green line) on GPG is usually pretty easy.

I'm a TA novice, but if GPG closes down today (which is looking less likely as the day wears on) it will hammer the OBV indicator. Although I'm not sure that OBV is neccessarily designed for such a trade.

As for a wedge, if I was going to suggest any formation, I think an ascending triangle (positive) would seem more likely than a wedge.



(NB -- this graph doesn't include today's price action)

[Gryffyn]

Where's Phaedrus when we need him :-)

[Gryffyn]

UK trust offloads holding in GPG

24.01.05
By PAUL PANCKHURST


The investment trust of British billionaire Lord Jacob Rothschild is believed to have sold shares it inherited as part of Guinness Peat Group's takeover of threadmaker Coats.

It is understood that RIT Capital Partners, a UK-listed investment trust, chaired by Rothschild and part-owned by the Rothschild family, sold $40.9 million worth of GPG shares.

Australian and New Zealand institutions paid $2.12 a share - a 4.5 per cent discount on Thursday's closing price.

RIT was a part of the GPG-led consortium, Avenue Acquisitions, that took over UK company Coats - a global business and the world's largest threadmaker - for $1.1 billion in 2003.

After the takeover, GPG owned 64 per cent of the investment vehicle that owned Coats.

Last May, GPG mopped up the minority shareholders in Coats, including RIT Capital, with the $175 million offer of 1.25 GPG shares and 25p in cash for each Coats share.

The average price of GPG shares last May was $1.97. Friday's sale price of $2.12 was 7 per cent higher.

At the Auckland office of UBS - the sharebroker that sold the shares - managing director Campbell Stuart refused to comment.

Coats is the biggest investment of GPG, the investment company founded by Sir Ron Brierley.

In August, Brierley described the move to 100 per cent ownership of Coats and the associated upfront costs and write-offs as "more painful than originally anticipated".

He said Coats' operating profit rose 85 per cent in the six months to June 30 of last year but was eaten up by refinancing charges and a geographical mismatch of taxable earnings and tax credits for past losses.

He touted January 1 of this year as "a symbolic date when Coats begins a new financial year as a reorganised and fully fledged subsidiary of GPG".

Brierley also spelled out the five stages of "the Coats exercise".

* One: a strategic stake.

* Two: a successful takeover.

* Three: 100 per cent ownership.

* Four: full integration with GPG.

* Five: deliver results.

Sharebrokers seem to think the company will get there - GPG was one of the favourites of brokers polled by the Business Herald on stocks expected to do well in 2005.

[Gryffyn]

Article in today's DomPost re GPG and that it is probably undervalued. Bases this mainly on the Coates turn-around. Points out 18% annualised cap growth of share since Sir Ron took over. Hedges a little by pointing out that as Coates is wholly owned, accurate figures aren't available but still gives a rosey view of GPG for the year. Sorry, can't find an online link for article.

The share price has been tracking up nicely for the last week or so which is great for those of us long in this stock :-)

Disc: GPG