Best thing to happen will be resounding losses in South Africa.
Best proof that the continuity coaching strategy is failing and relegating the ABs to second tier players.
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Only 3 weeks to go to find out what kinds of rewards The Board have in store for their owners.
A real opportunity for them to suprise and delight given recent events, so let's see.
Not long to wait.
It also happens to be my toddlers Birthday. The quality of his gift is dependent on Bowman and the team...
This is a share that requires great patience. When I first bought in several years back, I thought it was somewhat oversold relative to its strong and stable cash generation. And even against the negative headwinds of changing demographics and technology, it would have time to adapt while being able to fund dividends and reinvestment. My did I underestimate the power of negative sentiment towards this stock, seemingly fueled by some erratic management and board behaviour.
Then just when it looked like Sky had put the the bad old days behind them and started concentrating on a sensible stripped down strategy with a new focused management, they went and almost embarked on a hare-brained merger that baffled pretty much everyone but them! It seems they called it off only reluctantly!
I therefore agree wholeheartedly with all the other posters that it is impossible to trust Sky management due to the chance that they will randomly do dumb stuff. It is like they need a touchstone principle like Googles "Dont be evil", however in their case it would be "Dont do anything stupid". As Barak Obama once said "Dont underestimate Joe's ability to ***k things up", that pretty much sums up the nervousness about Sky management...
So here is hoping the upcoming decisions on return of capital and dividends are a continuation of a calm, methodical and logical approach. And we can return to trusting that management are focused on executing a transparent strategy bit by bit, and not trying to hit home runs (boring is good).
Yes, very reluctantly. Plans foiled by those pesky things called 'shareholders'.
Management will take to the grave that pursuing MW was the right call. I actually do agree with them that they should explore uses for the funds before returning capital to shareholders. Ideally, we only want cash returned (be it buybacks or cash distribution) if Sky cannot use the money to generate a superior ROIC, future proof the business etc.
That very good principle doesn't mean you rush out and buy any old thing for the sake of using the cash. Paying any amount of money for a debt-riddled MW was always going to be a tough sell - and some of the numbers touted by various media outlets was truly eye watering!
Anyway, commonsense did prevai in the end - and now we just want to move forward. Hopefully the Board will be inclided to be a little more generous than they otherwise would have to quall disgrunted shareholders.
It is my understanding that The Board now have Sophie on a very tight leash.
It will also be interesting to see how sharehoklders vote with regards to the reappointment of Chairman Philip Bowman and Joan Withers. If their dividend and capital return is too light, it may generate another shareholder revolt.
The Board are complicit really, they clearly let management go a long way down the path of doing that deal. So they bought management's explanation that this was a good use of company funds for all the reasons you have listed. Normally it is the Board's job to hold back management from rushing off and doing stupid stuff, but they were MIA on this one.
So for my money, the Board entirely failed in their core duty. They were just lucky a public-minded soul had the balls to leak the crazy plan in the nick of time. A Board that does not act as the adults in the room really needs to go, their judgment cannot be trusted.
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This is Sky we're talking about...