After an eventful two months we can review our portfolio again and see than the view we took five weeks ago has proved wise after a few difficult days in the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote.
Our building industry holdings dropped temporarily in value as the damage done to shares by hedge funds trying to knock down the industry were proved wrong, and all our investments continue to trade at maximum or near maximum levels, with record order books. It will take almost 20 years to build sufficient numbers of new homes to meet demand.
PERSIMMON produced provisional figures for the six months to June with sales up by 12% on last year, profits up and sales through May and June unaffected by Brexit.
REDROW where shares halved after completely unjustified lies and rumours of disaster, announced provisional figures six weeks early stating profits this year will be ahead of expectations, after private house sales were 46% ahead of last year and the current order book is 50% ahead of last year. Not only are the number of houses being sold increasing but selling prices are also rising and the continuing shortage of housing leaves market fundamentals unchanged. Final figures will be published on 6th September,with a large dividend increase expected.
TAYLORWIMPEY is another of our holdings and here again they see no adverse affects from Brexit and we anticipate another record year here,with record profits and a dividend increase already forecast.
BERKELEY GROUP has stated that there has been little effect from Brexit to date and that they have a broad based business not dependent on multi rich foreign customers.This is in response to Hedge Funds trying to damage this very successful business.I have no doubt Chairman Tony Pidgley will silence those trying to damage Berkeley.

Hotel and Catering Investments.
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS continues to do well with more hotels being added to the group throughout the year and here we have benefitted from the decreasing value of the pound as 80% of profits are ex the UK and the UK hotels should benefit from incoming tourist numbers into Britain due to the decreased pound/dollar/euro rates. Final figures and a dividend increase are expected at the end of July.

ACCORHOTELS are expected to produce encouraging figures at the end of July with the added attraction that the effects of the FAIRMONT/RAFFLES acquisitions will be a feature of future profits, and we will get news of the major link with a Chinese hotel chain to create a group is some 6500 hotels. ACCOR has a particularly successful marketing strategy which we consider to be the best in the industry as it develops a massive customer base of satisfied visitors and maintains online contact with all on a regular basis, unlike the other chains. ACCOR has now become our largest holding in this industry.

NH Hotels in SPAIN now increasingly features in our portfolio. HNA the Chinese Hotel and Leisure conglomerate has in addition to its 29% holding in the company, recently acquired CARLSON Hotels in the US, which in turn gave it a 51% holding in REZIDOR hotels in Belgium, the main competitor to NH in many European Cities.
This has caused ructions in both companies with the Chinese Directors leaving the NH Board, but once the dust settles the two companies in conjunction with their mutual Chinese Investors could create a major hotel chain with a distinctive European/Spanish/South American base,and we would hope for a positive development in the next 12months,

COMPASS group continues as a world leader in contract catering and services, this being reflected in a steadily increasing share price from an international trading base with increasing profits and dividends.

  SODEXO is the French based equivalent of Compass and once again has produced some excellent figures with an improving share price. It's international business is more biased to former French territories where Compass does not have representation.

MITCHELL &. BUTLER is the sleeping giant of the UK catering/bar business. We sold our previous holding here some 9 years ago at 860p per share before the company suffered from major management and share holder problems which have lasted for years
      The shares are now only 270p each and with some 1500 properties/sites the only way now should be upwards. It has new management which has been in place for more than a year and is slowly upgrading and modernising its estate, which needs to get new brands to replace the outdated Harvester, O'neils, Vintage Inn, Brown's,etc outlets with bars/restaurants for the 21st century.
      Now profitable and dividend paying we believe the major shareholders should be planning a successfull future for this group.With the biggest shareholder living in the Bahamas with all its sunshine and colourful Caribbean colours, one might question why some of the new schemes being introduced are 50 shades of gray ,and not warm welcoming colours?
      As an investment it does not meet our normal criteria but at this level the only way must be onwards and upwards.

FILMS & TELEVISION

  Our clients, the CHOCOLATE FILMS GROUP continues to have a very successful year with a full programme of productions and film making both in the UK and in Europe

Autumn Investment Review. This will now be at the end of September by which time it will reflect the initial success of the new government lead by Theresa May

Wishing all friends and clients a most enjoyable holiday