Not the most exciting share, but with safeway conversion now complete (and how much better the old safeway stores are now) the shares should start to come back. Already started a nice rise from a recent low. Costs for conversions will still hold the price back but when that is out of the way, should be be nice. 190p

Which equates to approx 2.75% of 307 sp. & the divi was taxable at source. Whichever way you had done it , there was very little in the difference from buying pre or post divi, so far.

harry stamp and dealing means i would lose a little but i will wait till 290p

made a mistake selling but i made a lot of money . but still wish i had not sold .but vod will do me well

no reason you couldn't buy back .... i still hold

cynic have moved to barc 275p vod 169p tw 39p and these will make me 30k in 6 months . then i will sell and look at market.

cynic my bank manager told me to buy tw on monday she knows me very well and said she was told to buy and they will double .

cynic i buy new VW every year and give my old one away i pick up my new one 29th and have allready decided who is having this one i am love to see the smile on there faces. amazing

cynic where can i get a list of div dates for ftse100

have asked IG who will get back to me ..... for upcoming divis i think they get the info via bloomberg or one of the big brokers with whom they deal .... for all 100 companies, it's possible that they can be found via www.londonstockexchange.com and then go to bottom right to find header for contacts

cynic thanks

sp falling on Iceland bid rumour?

sp has not fallen disproportionately to the rest of the market and if the rumour is true (far from impossible), then i do not see it as a negative

Yes. Time to be out of MRW, imo. 1.5bn is a lot of money, though should the deal be done, the brokers should then revalue the company, presumably at a much higher price.

Nomura note out today on the proposed MRW / Iceland offer:

Morrison reportedly running the rule over Iceland
Both the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph reported that Morrison is in the process of appointing advisers for a potential GBP 1.5bn bid for Iceland. In its last published numbers for the year to Mar-10 Iceland had GBP 2265m sales, GBP 154m EBITA and GBP 184m EBITDA from c.780 stores, with a floor space of 3.8m sq.ft. As widely reported, Landisbankis majority stake is believed to be for sale.

Under the stewardship of CEO and founder Malcolm Walker, Iceland has performed strongly, delivering compounded LFL growth (+4% for FY Mar - 10), with market data suggesting that FY Mar-11 also saw mid-single-digit growth. Sales densities of c.GBP 600/sq.ft to deliver an EBITDAR margin of c.11% also hint at strong cost discipline (store rent GBP 65m).

Although we think MRW, alongside Asda, would see a reasonable demographic fit with the Iceland store catchments, the success of any deal would be contingent on the delivery of the sales uplifts from overlaying a Morrison offer on the Iceland stores.

MRW has a clutch of stores at 8k sq.ft, and is in the process of opening 16 former Netto stores (7-8k). However, it has not yet opened the three trial sub-3k stores (planned for affluent catchments). A deal would acquire smaller store know-how and a supply chain, albeit for a frozen food specialist with 5-6k stores rented in secondary locations.

0.7x sales for rented stores looks full, but highlights MRWs value MRW would have the benefit of synergies and sales uplifts, but the mooted price tag of 0.7x sales represents a full valuation, relative to the 0.5x it paid for 16 Netto stores (Asda paid >1x) and the 0.5x valuation implied by our Jan-12 forecasts for MRWs almost fully owned portfolio.
Although we think MRW has very different capabilities from its acquisition of Safeway, and are encouraged by MRWs ambition, we are wary on reported price and question whether the Iceland portfolio should form the vanguard of MRWs advance into convenience.

i know this is a bit of a silly day as will be tomorrow just before yet another b/h, but it's good to see a strong performance with sp comfortably back above the 300 level

cynic don't forget they are buying their shares back.

i don't recollect that MRW was being shorted; it's held up very well since the figures anyway

cynic they are not being shorted they are using 1.5 billion to buy back their own shares for cancellation, hence supporting their sp in a declining market.

if that ends up as a capital gain for me i don't care!

16:42, Sunday 4 September 2011

Morrisons' first-half results will be closely watched, not just by supermarket analysts, but economists trying to divine how bad the economy is in the crucial months running up to Christmas.

So far this year, Morrisons has proved to be one of the most reliable of performers posting better sales growth than its bigger competitors, but how much has trading slowed in recent months?

Analysts are forecasting that Morrisons' first half like-for-like sales growth could be anything from flat to 2.4pc. If it hits 2pc, that would be a clear signal that not only is it taking market share, but the British shopper is in possibly in better shape than many fear. First (OTC BB: FSTC.OB - news) -half pre-tax profit is expected to climb from 410m to about 433m.

Morrisons has been helped by the fact that it sells a far greater proportion of food than its rivals, which have moved increasingly into clothing and electricals areas where consumers are cutting back on.

Also, from May 398 of its 439 stores extended their opening hours. Analysts will want to know how much of its sales growth has been driven by these longer hours