This share seems pretty unfashionable as nobody ever seems to mention it on any of the discussion boards I look at nor ever wants to if I try to start threads. Advice wanted though. i am in on this and have watched the share price rise almost 100% in a year. In this time trade volume has steadily increased but late Friday this was announced (attached below) and trade volume was huge on top of this particular massive trade. I am a pretty inexperienced investor and am kinding of learning as I go along. What does this announcement signify? Any ideas? May be obvious but not to me. Seems to have kicked in now the price has broken the 2 barrier. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers:

Big Yellow Group PLC

Secondary Placing

Big Yellow Group PLC ("Big Yellow" or the "Company") has been informed that Big
Yellow Investment (Bermuda) Limited and PGA Big Yellow Limited (together the "
Selling Shareholders") have today disposed of their entire holding of ordinary
shares in the Company by way of a placing. Big Yellow Investment (Bermuda)
Limited is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Inc. ("
Pramerica"), while PGA Big Yellow Limited is an investment owned by a fund
managed by a subsidiary of Pramerica.

Cazenove & Co. has placed 28,145,904 ordinary shares held by the Selling
Shareholders, representing approximately 28.1 per cent. of the issued share
capital of the Company, on their behalf with certain institutions at a price of
190 pence per ordinary share. Following the placing the Selling Shareholders do
not hold any ordinary shares in the Company.

Captain

yes you are correct though the dilution is only 0.5% and the mkt didnt blink so nothing to be too concerned about. these are for options, which analysts etc would have known about from the annual report so not a huge shock.

As long as they are not disproportionally large, then options in a growing company are a positive in the long term imho

Cheers Fundamentalist.

There seems to be a lot of activity surrounding this share now and sometimes it's hard for the inexperienced investor to decipher what a lot of these things mean. One worry i always had about this share is that it has surely been boosted by a boom in the housing market and thus any slowdown might affect it but I am starting to think I needn't worry about this as the company is mainly based in the south east where house price rises havent been as great over the last few years and the company has grown steadily. Plus Storage seems to be an extremely underdeveloped industry in the UK whereas it has been common for years in the US.

Very positive share price performance again today - cant find any reason behind it - anyone heard any news?

There is a rumour that there might be a bid for LokNStore from BYG:

Thanks ethel

Anyone in on this? I keep telling myself this lot are going to hit a rough patch soon. Surely a slowing housing market is got to hit them eventually. Any opinions on the manageability of their debt levels if they begin to feel the bite?

Captain

im still exposed to these

with regard to the debt i think the problem is far more exposed to interest rates than a slowing housing mkt. I am not convinced by the argument that if house prices are falling people are going to require less storage - surely there will be a volume of people selling up and renting in anticipation of falls and putting some of their belongings in storage. also, if the market starts to fall there is likely to be many buy to let investors selling and hence putting their furniture into storage. i accept that in a falling mkt a lot of people will just stay out and hence the number of transactions will fall and hence the use of storage will fall - but i am not sure this is that large an impact

with regards to the share price, i would expect in the short/medium term that the placing at 190p of 28% of the shares should provide a floor, though hopefully they wont go this low, though it wouldnt surprise me to see a phase of consolidation

You are probably right. I intend to stay in on this one long term anyway as that is initially why i got in in the first place. The brand and the scope for growth.

Any idea why the big drop in this today?

Anyone reckon this share is now on a downward spiral? I don't see it doing to well short term that's for sure in light of the current housing market although I am staying in for the long haul. Anyone still in/now out?

Captain

im out for now (sold when 200p was breached) - last co statement was downbeat looking forward, and im generally not comfortable in the mkt generally at the mo. Still on the watchlist - looking to see if support at 180p holds otherwise there is nothing down to 150p

There seems to be huge gluts of selling every day since that bad downbeat announcement but very few buys yet the share price isnt falling that far. Any idea what the reason is?

Captain

not been watching the trades that closely but i would assume on past performance there are institutions prepared to pick up the retail sales - on the basis they supported the placing at 190p they will be keen to support the price as close to that level as possible

Citywire: "Big Yellow Group climb 25p to 556p on revived takeover rumours.."
Similar hint appeared elsewhere at the weekend.

Have bought into this today.

Ex-divi wed 11th Dec (8p)

Notification of Results for the Half Year and Second Quarter ended 30 September 2014

Big Yellow Group PLC, the UK's brand leader in self storage, will be announcing results for the half year and second quarter ended 30 September 2014 on Wednesday 19 November 2014.

StockMarketWire.com
Self-storage group Big Yellow posts strong first half results with revenues up 11% at £39.9m and adjusted pre-tax profits up 29% at £18.4m.

Cash flow from operating activities (after finance costs) increased by 27% to £17.8 million and the interim dividend to 10.4p per share is up 30%.

Executive chairman Nicholas Vetch said: "In this seasonally stronger trading period, coupled with the improving demand environment for our product, we are pleased to have delivered a strong performance in the first half. Since the onset of the financial crisis 7 years ago, we have been very focused on making improvements to our capital structure, with particular focus on the liability side of the balance sheet. We now have a sensible level of indebtedness, with a spread of credit maturities from a range of borrowing sources, hedged to accommodate both inflationary and deflationary pressures. The many problems and challenges, economic and political, are well documented, however we are confident that we have a business model and capital structure that allows us to meet them. Furthermore, the work on the brand, customer service, systems and operational strategy undertaken over the last few years, leaves us primed to take advantage of any improvement in self storage demand. The core task of filling the stores is both achievable and within sight and we believe will deliver attractive growth in earnings and dividend."4

Big Yellow also announced its intention to raise additional equity capital through a placing of up to approximately 14.35 million new ordinary shares - approximately 9.99% of the company's existing issued share capital - with both existing shareholders and new institutional investors.

On completion of the placing the Company will accelerate its option (otherwise exercisable from 31 March 2015) to buy out its partner Pramerica Real Estate Investors from their existing joint venture, Big Yellow Limited Partnership. The purchase price will be £39.25 million (excluding expenses), close to the book value as of 30 September 2014 and will be paid in cash.

StockMarketWire.com
Big Yellow Group's revenues rose to £21.3m in the three months to the end of December - 16% up on a year ago.

In the period, the group completed the acquisition of the two-thirds share of Big Yellow Limited Partnership that it did not previously own; the Partnership owning 12 Big Yellow stores in large metropolitan cities outside of London.

The acquisition was partly financed through the successful placing of 14.35 million ordinary shares in November.

The revenue excluding the Partnership stores included from 1 December was £20.3m for the quarter, representing an increase of 11% from the corresponding quarter last year.

The group says: "In what is always a seasonally weaker quarter for the group, the 68 stores fell in occupancy by 103,000 sq ft (2.4% of maximum lettable area) compared to a loss of 120,000 sq ft (2.9% of MLA) in the same quarter last year. The number of move-ins was up 14% on the quarter to 31 December 2013. For the 56 stores that were wholly owned at 30 September 2014, the loss of occupancy in the quarter to December was 2.1% of their 3,526,000 sq ft MLA."

Chief executive James Gibson said: "The seasonal loss of occupancy in the group this quarter is in the normal range of 2% to 3% of MLA, and pleasingly towards the lower end of this range, driven by year-on-year improvement in move-in numbers in the stores. This improving demand is broad based across domestic and business customers.

"Whilst our main focus remains on occupancy performance we are pleased to have delivered net rent per sq ft growth of 1.6% from 30 September 2014 across the total portfolio of 68 Big Yellow stores.

"Furthermore on a like-for-like basis over the quarter year on year revenue growth of 11% has remained in line with the first half of the year.

"We are also delighted to have acquired the freehold of our store in Battersea and the adjoining retail unit. This both protects our self storage business in this key location, and provides us the opportunity to extend our store in the future.

"We have had a positive start to January with the seasonal return to occupancy growth and an improving book of reservations. As we have indicated previously, the uncertainty around the General Election in May could lead to some prospects deferring decisions in the run up to and over the election period.

"Looking through that, we believe the structural changes in London and other major cities, the barriers to new self-storage supply, the recent changes to stamp duty, reducing energy costs and continued low interest rates are all positive for self-storage demand. We now look forward to our seasonally busier spring and summer trading period."

StockMarketWire.com
Self storage group Big Yellow reports increased demand throughout the UK and growth in all its key store metrics.

Revenues for the year to the end of March rose by 17% to 84.3m with adjusted pre-tax profits up 35% at £39.4m.

Adjusted diluted EPRA earnings per share rose by 32% to 27.1p and the final dividend of 11.3p per share is up from 8.4p a year ago.

Executive chairman Nicholas Vetch said:

"We are pleased to report very strong results, with demand growth across our network reflecting improved economic growth not just in London, but within the UK as a whole. To deliver this performance we continue to innovate and maintain an unerring focus on all aspects of our business, such that we grow our market share and monetise the strength of our brand.

"We make no attempt to judge the economic cycle as it is a fruitless task and never more than now. We have now positioned the Group for the long-term so that we can enjoy the benefits of a strong economy and also adequately accommodate any reverses.

"The most important contribution to performance will be growing the occupancy and increasing rental rates in the existing platform of stores. In addition, there is scope to add more stores but the availability of land, and competition for it, makes this challenging. That said, there will be opportunities and we are well positioned to exploit them.

"The objective is very simple; to grow earnings and dividend at a compelling, but sustainable rate over a long period of time, without taking undue risk."