PAYS recommends accepting offer

The current holdings (as of today 4th August) are:
1) BAE (BA.) : 1115 shares valued @ £ 6,562 (down £258 from £6,820)
2) BlackRock Smaller Co IT (BRSC) : 1181 shares valued @ £14,278 (UP £283 from £13,995)
3) G4S (GFS) : 2058 shares valued @ £6,783 (down £187 from £6,970)
4) GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) : 393 shares valued @ £5,985 (down £410 from £6,395)
5) GVC Holdings (GVC) : 1031 shares valued @ £8,113 (UP £168 from£7,945)
6) HG Capital Trust (HGT) : 220 shares valued @ £3,720 (UP £50 from £3,670)
7) ICG Enterprise Trust (ICGT) : 470 shares valued @ £3,492 (UP £59 from £3,433)
8) JPMorgan Emerging Markets (JMG): 625 shares valued @ £5,121 (down £9 from £5,130)
9) Lancashire Holdings (LRE) : 1209 shares valued @ £8,850 (UP £180 from £8,670)
10) Legal & General (LGEN): 2489 shares valued @ £6,767 (UP £187 from £6,580)
11) Pacific Assets (PAC) : 1931 shares valued @ £4,929 (UP £9 from £4,920)
12) Paysafe (PAYS) : 7000 shares valued @ £41,300 (UP 490 from £40,810)
13) Sage Group (SGE): 931 shares valued @ £6,335 (down £85 from £6,420)
14) Schroder Asia-Pacific (SDP) : 1252 shares valued @ £5,402 (UP £56 from £5,346)
15) Segro (SGRO) : 1607 shares valued @ £8,605 (UP £417 from £8,188)
16) Senior (SNR) : 1574 shares valued @ £4,112 (UP £325 from £3,787)

Shareholdings total = £140,359 (UP £1,280 from £139,079)
17) XBT Provider (BIT-XBT): 798 units valued @ £8,487 (UP £329 from £8,158)
Cash @ £669
SIPP Value = £148,846 (UP £1,609 from £147,237)

In early July, I decided to sell-off my holding in Imperial Brands Group (IMB) at 3422-pence (recouping £5,842) and - in hindsight - that looks a good call.

I’ve invested the proceeds of that sale in crypto-currency Bitcoin (BTC) via XBT-Provider tracker fund (BIT-XBT).  I’ve accumulated 798 units in the fund at the equivalent of approx. US$2,455 per BTC. The value of BTC has remained between $2,700 - $2,800 this past week, and the expectation is that if the value can crack US$2,800 then there is likely to be a strong surge of pent-up support that will push the price to over US$4,000.

The news today is that the Paysafe board of directors have accepted (and recommended to shareholders) the US$3.70bn, 590-pence a share, offer from Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners. Now that we have a formal bid on the table if there is an alternative offer being prepared then we will see it soon. I was hoping that the 590-pence offer would be rejected by the board of directors, but I suppose the CEO Joel Leonoff wants to see a return for the efforts he has put in building this company up, and he holds nearly 10 million shares worth about £57 million – a nice “retirement” fund!

My problem – when the sale goes through – is that I will have to find somewhere to invest the proceeds. The Paysafe holding represents 27.50% of the total value of the SIPP and even if I rebalance with a minimum of 5% of value with each holding, then I’m still going to have a fair percentage in cash.