It has taken me ~6 weeks, but I have just completed selling the bulk of my Sky shares.
I have sold 97% of the shares I owned, and now hold a very modest amount of shares. I only hold ~$25K worth of shares now - enough to keep me interested in how events unfold for Sky over time, but not so much as to be particularly worried either. Also consider that at the end of November, Sky will return $4K of that to me in cold hard cash.
Why have I sold out?
Well, it is my view that the current market price for Sky is more than fair. Probably overvalued actually.
Market cap = $410M. Once you subtract the $70M cash payment, Sky's operations are valued at $340M.
Even if we assume that Sky pay the top end dividend guidance of $23M next year, a $340M market cap would be a 6.8% yield. When you consider that Spark is currently priced at a 6.3% yield, that is truly astounding.
I have no idea what the Sky SP will do over the next year, but I do feel that the current price is more than fair given:
- Earnings outlook beyond a year or so is very murky
- Big renewal deals are coming up soon - rugby and HBO. Winning them will come at a big price.
- Broadband uptake is slow
- STB rollout is still yet to happen. The rest of the cash in the bank will be spent on this new box.
- Now that it has taken Sky so long to launch a new box, the uptake will be less than if they did this a few years back given Smart TV's are pretty damn good now. It is still an important part of their tech roadmap, but will have less impact now than it would have in the past.
When all is washed up, on paper I am probably down about $40K on this investment. However, all is not lost:
- By hanging on to 10K shares I have not actually realised a loss yet. I get $4K in November, which reduces my loss to $36K. Future dividends and possible upward movement of the SP in the future (if a takeover ever eventuated, for example) could well mean that I get all my momey back in the future.
- I still get to own a tiny slice of a business I am interested in, but can 'set and forget' now.
- The learnings from owning Sky over the past few years have been absolutely invaluable to me.
Murphy's Law dicated that next week a takeover offer will present. That's ok if it does - I don't have a crystal ball, and holding while hoping a greater fool will come along to buy your shares is hardly investing. I have sold my shares, and feel pretty damn good about it.
Good luck to everyone still hanging in there. It will be interesting to see how this play out for Sky over the next few years!