GDHYP purchase 51 pre-poll

[Gengulphus]

This poll is to select between the 9 validly-nominated companies for this purchase, and an extra "None of these companies is at all suitable for this purchase" option. I have some very slight doubts about WPP and Stobart meeting the requirement to pay their dividends under the UK tax regime, as they are both registered in the Channel Islands (which are not part of the UK). But in both cases, their annual report says something like "the parent company of the group is resident in the UK for tax purposes", so I think they're OK.

I do intend to post my usual pre-poll details of the candidates, but want to get the 2-day period of this poll started asap, to make it as easy as possible to have the final run-off poll also be a 2-day one and still meet Halifax ShareBuilder's order input deadline at midnight on Wednesday. So they'll appear in a reply to this poll as soon as I can put them together - delay voting until they appear if you feel they'll help to inform your vote.

The three top-scoring companies will go through to the final run-off poll (though the number might be increased to 4 or 5 or decreased to 2 in some circumstances, as I've done before).

Gengulphus

[Gengulphus]

Here's the table with my usual details of the candidates. As usual, forecasts are from DigitalLook (now called WebFG), and note that I'm not saying that the table contains everything you'll need to decide which candidate you favour - that's for you to decide!


[1] ICB sector name being used provisionally - I'm not certain whether I'll eventually accept it.
[2] Marks & Spencer doesn't fit in wonderfully with Tesco and Sainsbury, but it's a better fit in my view than with more specialist retailers like Halfords.
[3] BHP Billiton is an Australian/UK dual listed company. The UK company has market cap £34,341m; I believe the Australian company is somewhat bigger, making the whole thing more than twice as big. I won't try to resolve exactly how big - it's clear the market cap should be easily high enough to satisfy any HYPer!
[4] BHP Billiton's historical dividend cover rises to 1.42 if one uses the company's underlying basic EPS figure.
[5] BP's historical cover uses statutory EPS; using "underlying replacement cost profit per share", it is somewhat better at 0.78, but still poor.

And the portfolio listing, updated with the latest prices:



Gengulphus

[heathmount]

Gengulphus

Thanks for all your efforts resurrecting GDHYP. I can tell by your recent posts the time and effort you've spent on this - it is much appreciated.

Heathmount

[Gengulphus]

BHP Billiton, BP and WPP are the three top-polling candidates and go through to my just-posted final run-off poll for this purchase. Also, as I've realised that I neglected to thank everyone who nominated shares in the original thread for this selection, I'd like to say many thanks to all who did so now - it was an interesting range of candidates, with a wide range of yields, market caps, dividend covers and sectors!

I should also add that I've discovered a bit more about the very slight doubts I expressed about WPP in the OP of this thread. Or rather, re-discovered them, because I had exactly the same doubts about WPP last year, and mike helped me resolve them then. So my thanks to him again for laying them to rest a second time! ;-)

Gengulphus