I seldom trade but when I do feel I should inform you, lest you are left holding shares in a company that wags its tail and barks.
Three years ago I wrote about three investment trusts with high yields. Today I sold one of them: Utilico Emerging Markets. I’m following the plan and have bought more Personal Assets. In fact, to be transparent, I don’t have any shares in Merchants Trust and only a very small position in Murray International, simply because I want capital growth more than highly taxed income.
But the best laid plans go off the rails. This morning MP Evans, of which I have been a shareholder for almost forty years (will they present me with a gold watch at the next AGM?), published their results for the first six months of this year. Yellow Pages used to let the fingers do the walking. I will let the numbers do the talking.
· 34% increase in ex-mill-gate CPO price to US$724 per tonne
· 111% increase in sustainability premia to US$1.9 million
· Operating profit up by 588% to US$41.3 million (2020 US$6.0 million)
· 21% decrease in net debt to US$67.7 million (2020 US$85.6 million)
· 572% increase in earnings per share to 38.3p (2020 – 5.7p per share)
· Interim dividend doubled to 10p per share (2020 – 5p per share)
I don’t know what the sustainability premia means either but it sounds good and I will ask the chairman. Everything is up except debt. So much for my dumping high yielding shares – MPE has turned into a printing press for dividends. It’s also a takeover target for a Malaysian palm oil company that already owns almost a quarter of MPEs shares.