The Lemon Fool

Lootman wrote:

monabri wrote:Maybe Smith should be asking why Fundsmith is only doing slightly better than an S&P 500 tracker ( Vanguard's VUSA) over the last 5 years?

The S&P 500 has almost doubled in the last 5 years, with dividends on top, so that is not a terrible performance. Call it 15% annually.

Compared with the FTSE-100, Smith did much better.

It's the performance versus cost ratio I was quibbling about.

monabri wrote:I wonder if PayPal will be the next on TS' chopping block..?

This thread is not about Fundsmith or Paypal. BTW the graphic looks out of date - it's been a long while since Paypal was the lagrest holding.

csearle wrote:

Moderator Message:
As our simoan has pointed out, the subject of this thread is Unilever (ULVR). - Chris

I’d like to make it clear, I do not belong to the Lemon Fool!

On Unilever… the management are now under pressure to deliver organic shareholder value. It is quite clear it was not only Fundsmith who gave the company earache because of this I’ll advised bid. I would not be surprised if there is a change of management on the horizon. I believe news of a new broom with good credentials would do wonders for the share price. FWLIW I own more Unilever than I did this time last week.

All the best, Si

simoan wrote:I’d like to make it clear, I do not belong to the Lemon Fool!

Sorry Si, that was just a term of endearment. (If you want I'll delete it all.) C.

simoan wrote:I believe news of a new broom with good credentials would do wonders for the share price. FWLIW I own more Unilever than I did this time last week.

All the best, Si

Yes on both....I also "topped up" ULVR this week (>60%). Do ULVR figure on the GMS board?

viewtopic.php?p=436181#p436181

News here that an activist hedge fund investor ‘Trian’ has built up a stake in Unilever. https://www.reuters.com/business/financ ... 022-01-23/

Cheers, OLTB.

Nelson Peltz of Trian stirred up Procter and Gamble in 2017 by buying a big stake and then pushing for change.

"P&G has created tremendous value for all stakeholders since 2017,” Peltz said in a statement."

https://www.cincinnati.com/amp/5504807001

(P&G is headquartered in Cincinnati)

Could get lively. Tomorrow I might even buy back the Unilever shares I recently sold!

A few years ago I was lucky enough to be owning Canadian Pacific (CP) shares when Bill Ackman of Pershing Square bought a big stake. CP's directors had been dozing off for several years.

Ackman replaced CP's CEO and some other senior managers with his own picks who quickly turned the business around, a great success for customers and shareholders.

OLTB wrote:News here that an activist hedge fund investor ‘Trian’ has built up a stake in Unilever.

Friendly fire!

In the case of any business like Unilever, it's a case of fix or be fixed.

Best wishes


Mark.

According to Bloomberg he has been building a sizeable stake for some months and is expected to push for the food business to be split from the household and personal care business.

Anyway good for Jope and his team to be put under pressure to focus on making the existing business work better, IMO.

Sounds like a repeat of the script that Elliot played to old Emms at GSK.

Shame these incredibly well paid execs need hedge funds to tell them how to do their jobs. Perhaps they need a pay cut.

Matt

scrumpyjack wrote:According to Bloomberg he has been building a sizeable stake for some months and is expected to push for the food business to be split from the household and personal care business.

Anyway good for Jope and his team to be put under pressure to focus on making the existing business work better, IMO.

If I remember rightly, Unilever committed to listing the food business in the Netherlands if it should ever be demerged. I don't see any harm in having a mature division, slow growing but generating plenty of free cash flow - if that cash can be redeployed into growth areas. Whether the company remains as one and becomes leaner and meaner(!) or splits...well, I'm ambivalent.

Unilever's shares are about 30 percent below their 2019 peak, so the market certainly seems sceptical in its prospects.

Best wishes


Mark.

Maybe these 'activists ' are buying simply because they perceive the price is right..or more right than a week ago?

I think a lot of this is just short termism in action. Unilever is much more than Jope and has lots of amazing brands. It may succumb to some predator but I hope it will continue as an independent company. It is a big company which will command respect from its bankers I am sure and should therefore be a predator not the other way round.

Dod

A welcome and nice 5.5% rise in ULVR sp as I type, in an otherwise weak market. Knowing my luck the Unilever sp will run a lot higher before I top up my holding! Lol either way, I’m chilled about Unilever full stop. I look forward to owning more of it soon.

Ian.

idpickering wrote:A welcome and nice 5.5% rise in ULVR sp as I type, in an otherwise weak market. Knowing my luck the Unilever sp will run a lot higher before I top up my holding! Lol either way, I’m chilled about Unilever full stop. I look forward to owning more of it soon.

Ian.

Now over £39 so it has pretty well recovered, no doubt helped by the talk of activism on the horizon.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:Now over £39 so it has pretty well recovered, no doubt helped by the talk of activism on the horizon.
Dod

I think the GSK bid went from 'We'll pay anything' to 'No, thanks' when ULVR's board saw the large purchases by activists/vultures and feared for their jobs.

BT63 wrote:

Dod101 wrote:Now over £39 so it has pretty well recovered, no doubt helped by the talk of activism on the horizon.
Dod

I think the GSK bid went from 'We'll pay anything' to 'No, thanks' when ULVR's board saw the large purchases by activists/vultures and feared for their jobs.

I wasn't the only one who saw parallels with the ill fated acquisition that ICI made before it finally imploded. The Times ran an article on Sunday saying they thought Unilever had a lucky escape that the GSK has failed. I am relieved to be out of ULVR on the present share price bounce.

BullDog wrote:

BT63 wrote:

Dod101 wrote:Now over £39 so it has pretty well recovered, no doubt helped by the talk of activism on the horizon.
Dod

I think the GSK bid went from 'We'll pay anything' to 'No, thanks' when ULVR's board saw the large purchases by activists/vultures and feared for their jobs.

I wasn't the only one who saw parallels with the ill fated acquisition that ICI made before it finally imploded. The Times ran an article on Sunday saying they thought Unilever had a lucky escape that the GSK has failed. I am relieved to be out of ULVR on the present share price bounce.

The Times this morning quotes the G4S bid for ISS and it was after that failed bid that as the article says the security company unravelled. They comment on the lack of consultation with Unilever's shareholders before the bid and blame the relatively new Chairman for that. There certainly is a certain amount of arrogance about Unilever. I will hold on but neither the chairman nor Jope look very secure in their jobs I must say. I would have thought fundamental particularly for a bid as big as this was is the need to get shareholders on side beforehand.

The other thing is that this was not just a sounding out of GSK; after all they apparently made three different bids. They do not have much understanding of politics.

Dod

Dod101 wrote: I would have thought fundamental particularly for a bid as big as this was is the need to get shareholders on side beforehand.

Shareholders are asked to approve any accepted bid. But I have not seen a company ask shareholders' permission to make a bid. In fact publicising the intention to make a bid would have the effect of moving the target's price against you.

Aren't these moves usually done discreetly for exactly that reason?

Having sold Unilever last summer I bought back in last week and am pleased to see I am up 12% on the deal. That is the equivalent of three year's worth of dividends in just a few days. The question now is do I grab the profit and run?