Anyone notice the exratordinary volumes yesterday? (10/5/2004)

48 million!!!

Many more buys than sells.

That and the price held out only losing a fraction of a penny.

No Easter Eggs in sight in my local store.

May be one reason but............

Any ideas people?

Sells outweighing buys now, need this to continue for our price.

Its not going there, what's the next best buy in price Dave??

SW,not had a look at this of late,still sticking to the 20s,,29 max for me,not looking at this anymore,,to many eggs in my basket,,unless 26/29 comes about!

Still in the oil/gas business ?

Yes.

I have had a nice earner this wekk on HNR.

Took profit albeit probably beore others would have done but if the price of oil drops, and who knows..... I will be seen as a genius.

If not there will come another time.

Nice one SW,thought you were still in the fuel business,still holding SEY a quid by christmas!!
I will call in on the thread again.

Is it going down????


Woolworths Group plc

Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards

----------------------------------------------------------------


Woolworths Group plc ('Woolworths') today releases its unaudited financial
results for the year to 29 January 2005 as prepared under International
Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRS') as part of the process for the adoption
of IFRS as its primary accounting basis for the year ending 28 January 2006.


The key changes to Woolworths' reported financial information as at 29 January
2005 under IFRS are:


recognition of all employee benefit related obligations, principally
pensions and share based payments;

recognition of lease incentives received over the entire term of the lease
rather than up to the first market rent review;

amortisation of goodwill credited back to the income statement, partly
replaced by amortisation arising on intangible assets following the
reclassification of intangible assets from goodwill;

gain arising on the formation of its music and video publishing joint
venture (2entertain Limited) now included within the income statement and
adjusted by re-crediting of the amortisation of goodwill on acquisitions;

recognition of deferred tax liabilities on temporary differences.


For the year ended 29 January 2005, the impact on profits from the adoption of
IFRS is a reduction in profit before tax, exceptional costs and goodwill
amortisation of 7.2m from 73.1m to 65.9m. Profit after tax falls from 2.2m
to 0.4m. Net assets are reduced by 71.8m from 457.3m to 385.5m at 1 February
2004 and by 95.8m from 464.8m to 369.0m at 29 January 2005.


IFRS will apply for the first time in the Woolworths financial statements for
the year ending 28 January 2006. Accordingly, financial results for the six
month period ending 30 July 2005 will be prepared and reported under IFRS.


None of the adjustments arising from IFRS relate to cash, and therefore there is
no impact on reported cash flows.

SW,i am trying to give the highstreet a wide birth at the moment,,,,,,,its not easy,,there`s always a good offer in town .

Actually I agree with you to stay away.

The turning point will be if the BOE lower interest rates but the effect from that will take a few months to feed through.

Otherwise who are you playing with?

Which way today.

Looks like a mark time within current price ranges, at least till the next accounts.

takeover bid strategy - a very interesting read...

Should you chase the takeover targets?
In 2004 it seemed that every second high-profile firm around the world was either taking a firm over or being taken over itself. In the US, Cingular bought AT&T Wireless, for example, and, in the UK, Banco Santander bought Abbey National, and the on-off saga of Marks & Spencer (M&S) occupied column inches for weeks on end. But according to the investment bankers, we havent seen anything yet. Theres no reason to doubt their prediction. As John Plender points out in the FT, they know at first hand what is in the merger and acquisition (M&A) pipeline. And if they are right, its excellent news for investors: share prices tend to soar when bids are announced.

Take the case of Aggregate Industries. Three months ago, Sandy Cross of Williams de Broe tipped the building materials firm in MoneyWeek at 95p, saying that it looked a manageable size for a predator. He was right. This week, Switzerlands Holcim said it intends to bid $1.78bn or 138p a share for Aggregate Industries. Today, the shares are trading at around 145p - anyone who bought in November is sitting on a 53% gain.

So if this really is the start of the year of the deal, wheres the best place for investors to place their bets? There is scope for consolidation in all sorts of sectors, from telecoms equipment to travel, all over Europe, but in the UK it is the retail sector that is getting all the attention. Analysts have long been warning that British retailers were going to have a nasty end to 2004 and a worse beginning to 2005, and Christmas seems to have been every bit as poor as the pessimists feared, says Chris Brown-Humes, also in the FT. Higher interest rates, a weak housing market, record levels of personal debt, higher utility bills and increased public transport costs are all squeezing the ability and desire of households to keep spending. The result? A lot of our retailers are suffering and that could make them easy pickings for predators. Indeed, one of the only things supporting retailers share prices right now is the prospect of takeover activity.
(Article continued below)
Venture capitalists are still on the prowl, as is the Icelandic retailer Baugur, and Tesco and Asda might make a move on a rival. All of which leaves investors simply having to guess who the targets will be.

Betting on who they might be has become the latest City investment craze, says Simon Nixon on www.Breakingviews.com. But it isnt hard. M&S and JJB Sports saw their share prices rise even as they announced rubbish numbers as investors calculated this increased the likelihood of a takeover. Perhaps Philip Green will comes back and have another go at M&S.

Other possible targets include J Sainsbury, N Brown, MFI, Matalan and French Connection. But is betting on these firms wise? Debt is now cheap and plentiful, so potential bidders are awash with cash, but if the spending downturn gathers pace, that will change and takeovers will suddenly be harder to finance. And not all the dogs of the retail sector will be rescued by a bid. Some will just go bust instead. As Simon Watkins points out in The Mail on Sunday, some already have. Since Christmas, Scottish carpet maker Stoddard International has gone into administration because of tough trading at its key customer Allied Carpets, and fashion chain Pilot went into receivership as sales fell. These were both private companies, but the lesson is clear. If you are chasing takeover targets, make sure you go for firms that will survive even if they are forced to go it alone.

Woolworths is every inch a major takeover and worth following, a great opportunity if it materialises, the time is ripe once again -58p was recent target price.

Another week another negative wlw statement on the horizon,,what odds that.

dave somebodymentioned an x dividend date

or did I miss it?
thanks.Jules.

Not a holder of wlw jules,to rich a price for me.

statement tomorrow - hopefully lifts the share price..!!!
a rise back up to 44p would be a welcome boost for Woollies SP.

Either a sitting target for a predator, preferably Wallmart as mentioned a few back.

See that wlw is back in vouge with the tipsters

All thats holding back the sp at the minute is Deutche Bank unloading the residue of their 20% stake whih must be down to around 65m by now Another big chunk 19m went last week suggesting another fund is building a position at around 32p
Remember
.... even a relatively awful xmas ( sales down 3%) won`t stop woolies hitting their year end profit target which has 25m of cost savings guranteed to flow thru to the bottom line.........
Then watch the sp rise in Jan.........imho

I also read that they are bringing in mobile/portable cash registars in to reduce queing time for spenders over xmas,they should do well as if we are spending less on xmas items we tend to go to wlw to save afew pence.