Wasps Group learns outcome of crucial bondholder's meeting

[Rossm]

The Wasps Group has gained support from bondholders in a crucial meeting held today (November 12).

Bobby Bridge reports:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/wasps-group-learns-outcome-crucial-19267208

[hookender]

I suppose a pragmatic view by bond holders. As long as they can still get an income at the present time go along with it .Security still in place for them as it was before.

 Might be something else in the background re finance as it is mentioned about option for bond to be redeemed earlier without penalty agreed at meeting

[jamestaylor002]

I have absolutely no accounting knowledge or experience so take my comments with a lot of salt.

This decision looks positive but I imagine this is only for the short term (depending on how COVID goes on). I suppose the longer term solution will come after COVID stops impacting society as much as it is.

Were we looking healthy before this all happened or not?

[Shugs]

Great news. Gives us the breathing space to re-finance the bond which we were always going to have to do.

[SteveTodd]

I suppose a pragmatic view by bond holders. As long as they can still get an income at the present time go along with it .Security still in place for them as it was before.

 Might be something else in the background re finance as it is mentioned about option for bond to be redeemed earlier without penalty agreed at meeting

I voted yes, because I didn't see the point in boxing Wasps into a corner. I don't want things to go wrong for both me or Wasps, but if it did, the stadium is going to be worth a lot more later when attendances are back in the Ricoh, rather than now. I also invested more at just over 40 pence on Monday, so I'm quite pleased to see the bond price at around 50 pence currently. It would be great if we could just ride out the storm until attendances are back and somehow refinance the bond.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Steve,

If a chap wanted to buy some how would they go about it?

[SteveTodd]

You need to do it on an investment platform. I only use Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), I'm happy with them but I have only ever used one other (Fidelity, which I got fed up with, I like HL, but I don't have experience of other platforms. But HL is a well known and respected investment platform. You can invest in a standard fund and share account, or in an ISA or SIPP (additional charges apply to these 2 though, it is £200 a year for the SIPP and £45 a year for the ISA, the fund and share account is free for shares, bonds (which the Wasps bond is) and etfs).

Here is a link to their website https://www.hl.co.uk/ You would have to register and then you can invest, it costs £11.95 per trade to buy or sell (less if you do quite a lot of trades in month, which I have very rarely done). If you need any help just ask.

Currently the Wasp bond can be bought for about 51.5 pence, if it goes well and reaches maturity on 22 May 2022, you would almost double your money in capital gains (on top of the interest received and capital gains on individual corporate bonds are tax free), but obviously there is a significant risk, but it could still go wrong and they might still pay more than 51.5p in the £. The headline interest is 6.5%, but that is on £1, if you bought for say 51.5 pence, the annual interest would be approx 12.6% (6.5/.515).

I normally do not touch risky investments returning anything near what this bond hopefully will, but I have always thought at every price that they were value (if you can live with, and handle the risk and accept that it might not work out).

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Thank you, I'll take a look later tonight!

[SteveTodd]

You can only trade when the market is open, weekdays 8 am to 4.30 pm, but its a good idea to have a look while the market is closed and familiarise yourself with the website.

If you do invest, don't be surprised if you pay a few days interest, but it will not be much because the last interest paying coupon date was yesterday, the way it works is that the interest is paid twice a year (yesterday was one of those days), if you buy in between those dates, you pay any accrued interest to the seller, but at the next payment point, you get the whole 6 months interest, so you get it back. But note that when HL give you an interest paid certificate it just shows that whole 6 months, you can subtract the interest that you paid though (you just need to remember to do it when you submit a tax return).

[hookender]

 Well explained SteveTodd.

Transaction charges seem pretty standard

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Thank you, that all makes perfect sense.

[Heathen]

Talking of investments, I wonder if Jim Ratcliffe have any interest in rugby? He could a very useful guy to get on board!!!

[hookender]

Talking of investments, I wonder if Jim Ratcliffe have any interest in rugby? He could a very useful guy to get on board!!!

The Ineos Stadium has got a ring to it!

[Rossm]

Talking of investments, I wonder if Jim Ratcliffe have any interest in rugby? He could a very useful guy to get on board!!!

The Ineos Stadium has got a ring to it!

Rumour alert. I wonder when this will appear in the media😁😁😁

[RogerE]

Talking of investments, I wonder if Jim Ratcliffe have any interest in rugby? He could a very useful guy to get on board!!!

The Ineos Stadium has got a ring to it!

Ineos - the builder of a LR Defender rival in France. That'd go down well in the Coventry area