Question 1: Perpetual shares have jumped since the announcement of a takeover. What should I do?
Answer: I guess you should be relieved that Perpetual (PPT) is in play. I have never been a fan of the company and felt its own takeover of the Pedal Group was ill considered.
Briefly, Washinton H Sol Pattinson (SOL) has lobbed an indicative scrip offer to purchase Perpetual involving the separation of Perpetual into its three core businesses. Shareholders in Perpetual would receive shares in SOL in exchange for the Corporate Trust and Wealth Management businesses, and shares in a separately demerged Perpetual Asset Management business. According to SOL, it values the company at $27.00 per share (approx. $3.0bn).
Perpetual’s Board has rejected the offer, saying that it is “all script” and that it materially undervalues the company. They have further announced a strategic review to “unlock value” by considering options for the separation of Perpetual into the three core businesses.
In the short term, I would probably do nothing as this will take some time to play out. It is comforting to know that Perpetual’s largest shareholder, SOL, feels that there is value in the company. It is probably not their final offer.
Question 2: A lot of your experts sing the praises of IDP Education (IEL) but the price hasn’t been going up much. What do the major brokers think?
Answer: The major brokers are generally bullish on the stock, with 5 “buy” recommendations and 1 “neutral” recommendation. The consensus target price is $27.84, which is 17.9% higher than the last ASX price of $23.62. The range is a low of $23.50 through to a high of $32.20.
One of the reasons it can’t get back through $26.00 is that some of the institutions think it is quite expensive. On the current price and broker forecast earnings, it is trading on a multiple of 37.3 times forecast FY24 and 31.4 times forecast FY25 earnings.
Question 3: I’m not sure how I missed the news that Sunland Group was de-listing from the ASX. Anyway, I am now left with an issuer-sponsored holding in SGDU that I believe have to be bought and sold via private sale. If I’d known I would have sold before the de-listing but given that I now have these shares, how can I best dispose of them?
Answer: Yes, Sunland was delisted on 30 October.
Normally, unlisted companies work with shareholders by keeping an “unofficial” list of potential buyers and sellers. They don’t do anything officially, but will point sellers in the direction of potential buyers.
But I found this statement on Sunland’s website: “ Following removal from the Official List, shareholders are unable to trade their shares on the ASX. Sunland will not be providing any platform for shareholders to buy and sell Sunland shares and accordingly will only be able to trade their shares by off market, private transactions.”
So, it is up to you. You will need to find the buyer.
I would try to make personal contact with one or two of the Directors and let them know that you are a seller.
Question 4: How do I track the lithium spot price? I can’t seem to find a site that tracks this as clearly as other commodities like Crude, Gold, Silver & Copper etc.
Answer: To track the daily price (Lithium Carbonate) I go to Trading Economics, which has a very useful set of prices/charts/data.(https://tradingeconomics.com/ )
The spot price (in real time) is a little trickier. I haven’t found an easy source. There are some crypto coins based on lithium – just don’t know how reliable they are.