Q: What is your opinion on the make-up of the Origin rights?
A: (By Paul Rickard): Arguably, the market forced Origin into the capital raise – at a heavily discounted price of $4.00 – so it’s not surprising that the institutional part of the issue went so well and the shares are now trading around $6.40. Of course, a rally in the oil price has also helped.
What to do? Well, you can sell your rights (issued on a 4 for 7 basis), which are currently trading under ASX stock code ORGR, until Monday 19 October (last day of trading), or take up the rights by Monday 26 October. If you take no action, then your rights will effectively be auctioned to the institutional market and any premium over $4.00 will be rebated to you.
Although I think there is some value in Origin for the long-term holder, my sense is that oil prices won’t rebound quickly and that the current rights premium (of approximately $2.40) looks pretty attractive.
Question 2: I am hoping you can assist me to determine the cost base of my current holdings in SCG 4,328 and Westfield Corporation 2,000.
I purchased 2,000 Westfield Group ord/unit stapled securities back on 14 May 2009 at $9.65 for a total cost, including brokerage, of $19,332.95 and have held on through all the mergers and demergers etc.
I’m totally confused regarding what the cost base should be. Any help would be much appreciated.
Answer 2 (By Paul Rickard): Capital gains tax calculations on Westfield securities can be a nightmare – one of the reasons I don’t sell mine!
Here is the Westfield guide [1] that deals with the creation of Westfield Corporation (WFD) and Scentre Group (SCG) out of the former Westfield Group (WDC). This occurred with effect on 30 June 2014 – for every 1,000 shares in WDC, shareholders received 1,000 shares in the new WFD and 1,246 shares in SCG.
While the process is more involved (as per the attached sheet), because the securities are stapled, you would apportion 36.3821% of your original cost base (including any incidental acquisition cost like brokerage) to the SCG securities, and 63.6179% to the WFD.
The number of shares that you mention doesn’t tally with the number of shares in the split – so there may also have been another split that I don’t have details of, or you acquired separately some Scentre Group.
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