Super Friday

The current holdings (as of today 4th July) are:
1) BAE (BA.) : 1115 shares valued @ £6,820
2) BlackRock Smaller Co IT (BRSC) : 1181 shares valued @ £13,995
3) G4S (GFS) : 2058 shares valued @ £6,970
4) GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) : 393 shares valued @ £6,395
5) GVC Holdings (GVC) : 1031 shares valued @ £7,945
6) HG Capital Trust (HGT) : 220 shares valued @ £3,670
7) ICG Enterprise Trust (ICGT) : 470 shares valued @ £3,433
10) JPMorgan Emerging Markets (JMG): 625 shares valued @ £5,130
11) Lancashire Holdings (LRE) : 1209 shares valued @ £8,670
12) Legal & General (LGEN): 2489 shares valued @ £6,580
13) Pacific Assets (PAC) : 1931 shares valued @ £4,920
14) Paysafe (PAYS) : 7000 shares valued @ £40,810
15) Sage Group (SGE): 931 shares valued @ £6,420
16) Schroder Asia-Pacific (SDP) : 1252 shares valued @ £5,346
17) Segro (SGRO) : 1607 shares valued @ £8,188
18) Senior (SNR) : 1574 shares valued @ £3,787

Shareholdings total = £139,079
19) XBT Provider (BIT-XBT) : 798 units valued @ £8,158
Cash @ £669
SIPP Value = £147,906

When I wrote my last blog on 4^th July, it was with the news that Worldpay had received and offer (which was successful) and that Paysafe (PAYS) would fit the bill as a follow-up target.  Here we are, not 3 weeks later, and Paysafe is the subject of a US$3.70bn, 590-pence a share, offer from Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners.

I’m hoping that the 590-pence offer will be rejected by the board of directors as insufficient as, in my opinion, PAYS is worth a lot more than that. I’d be more comfortable with a bid that values PAYS at about US$8bn (which would be 800-pence a share). Apparently, Blackstone & CVC first approached PAYS in May but that initial offer was rejected – since then the PAYS board of directors has received 4 offers! This could be interesting.

In another major development since early July, I’ve decided to sell-off my holding in Imperial Brands Group (IMB) at 3422-pence, recouping £5,842.  Since investing £6,500 into the shares in March at an average of 3840-pence, the SP of this company has done nothing but go down.  There has been a flat-line of the SP through July, but the outlook is difficult to understand. There is a bid expected from Japan Tobacco International (JTI) – however, as the SP of that company has also been in retreat in 2017, any bid may be a long time coming.

I’ve taken the proceeds of that sale and bought the crypto-currency Bitcoin (BTC) via XBT-Provider tracker fund (BIT-XBT). This week, I’ve invested £7,540 into Bitcoin as that represents approximately 5% of the value of the SIPP. Approximately 200 units of BIT-XBT buys one Bitcoin, and I have accumulated 798 units. So, I’m in at a £1,890 per BTC (approx. US$2,455 per BTC).  The price of Bitcoin fluctuated a fair bit this week, from a low of US$1,863 to a high of US$2,940. As I write, the price is at US$2,740 and as more and more “legitimacy” is given to BTC (this week the London Stock Exchange started accepting BTC) in my opinion those negative fluctuations will reduce, and a long-term positive outlook will dominate.  It would not surprise me to see BTC trading at over US$4,000 before the end of 2017.