Great Titchfield Street, London -- December has been a busy month for our Staff Investment Club. Following on from our first foray into the market, Tesco (LSE: TSCO), the last few weeks have seen both the choice and purchase of our second victim.
This was the first meeting held in Fool UK's new offices. We decided to follow the lead of many an investment club and hold the meeting in a surrounding where there happened to be some alcohol available. With most of the initial administration matters now sorted out we can concentrate on the investment process. Candidates thrown into the ring for the second round were:
You may not have heard of EASDAQ. It is a European stock market that is heavily based on the highly successful NASDAQ market in the US. In fact they even stole five-sixths of the name!
Two of these investments were put forward last time, namely British Aerospace and Marconi/GEC. But the remaining five were new ideas. You'll see some of our thoughts about these stocks on the message board. We also reviewed the voting process, which we had said previously was likely to evolve as we went along. TMFSorted put forward a complicated-sounding 'single transferable vote' system whereby members numbered their 1,2,3 etc. The winning company was then decided by the continual process of eliminating the last-placed choice until only one was left. As a final hurdle the number of votes held by the final choice had to constitute a majority.
The bronze medal went to FI Group, leaving the final two contenders, Keep the Cash and NXT to fight head-to-head. NXT squeezed home by 10 votes to 8. This decision was announced on the TMF Staff Investment Club message board and we bought 72 shares in NXT at 1365p on December 10.
Having done some little sums it appears that the club will have just over £1,000 after January's contributions are collected. Therefore whilst they are eating their mince pies, the club members will also be thinking about what to buy next. Hopefully they finalise the thinking process before they collapse under the table in a drunken stupor.
The club's performance is summarised below. As you'll see we sitting on a loss of 6.6% so far. But as Glenn Hoddle would say "it's early doors". Never really understood what that meant myself. I think he meant early days. Part of the underperformance so far relates to dealing costs and bid/offer spreads, in fact 2.2% according to my calculations. Another 1.1% relates to fact that we refunded TMFEssex £28 for the Proshare manual. So even after our best two excuses we're still in the red.
The next meeting will be held in early January and suggestions have hit the message board already. The one that has attracted the most attention so far is Cable & Wireless(LSE: CW.). Will the club enter the tangled telecoms web with its third purchase? Below you will find details of how to win your own TMF for your investment club, details of how we are doing so far and the minutes of the December meeting.
Win your own TMF!
Hear ye, hear ye. Calling all London-based investment clubs. If you're interested in having one of the Motley Fool staff talk at your next investment club meeting, speak up now or forever hold your peace. In 100 words or less, simply tell us "What's the most important thing you've learnt in setting up your investment club."
We'll pick the best responses, and your prize will be a Foolish visit and talk at your next club meeting. Second prize will be two Fools, and third prize will be a trip for the whole investment club to a location...
Ooops. We got a bit carried away there. Seriously, send your responses to Phil Southgate at PhilS@fool.co.uk or post them on the Investment Clubs message board, along with any comments or questions on this feature.
Valuation as at: 10:45am 21 Dec 1999
Shares Price Value
Tesco 544 180.00 979.20
NXT 72 1270.00 914.40
-------
1893.60
Estimated disposal costs (43.52)
Cash in the kitty 335.40
Outstanding contributions 150.00
-------
Total pot 2335.48
Units issued 2500.00
Unit price 93.42
Performance to date -6.58%
The Motley Fool Staff Investment Club -- December Meeting Minutes
(Elegantly taken by TMFPopper)
Location: Media Club Bar, Great Titchfield Street Time: 13:00 hours Date: Wednesday, December 1
In Attendance:Bruce Jackson (TMFGoogly); Martin Wake (TMFSorted); Norma Boylan (TMFSymphony); Ewan Wilson (TheBoyEwan); George Row (TMFGrow); Keith Milner (TMFKeith); Phil Southgate (TMFPopper); Rob Davies (TMFEssex); Chris Spink (TMFEagle); Winfried Rauter (TMFBerlin); Renée Rosen-Wakeford (TMFPurr); Alan Oscroft (TMFAlan) and Stuart Watson (TMFTiger). (Who are these Fools?)
Apologies for absence
These were received from Dr David Berger (TMFFoolUK) and Nick Jenkins (TMFJenko). No apology from Toby (TMFToby) was received and none for lateness from Winfried (14mins) and Ewan (28mins), the latter's excuse being some lame story about saving the entire Fool Network from certain destruction. Tsk!
Minutes of the previous meeting
No objections were raised about the previous minutes, apart from Winfried who pointed out he in fact made no apology for the conduct of his nation during the war.
Matters arising
The constitution has not been signed by everyone and at least two, Keith and Renée, are yet to sign. The Chairman, Rob, is to ensure all are done.
Treasurer's report
TMF Tiger confirmed the purchase of Tesco went through as planned and expected a bank statement by next meeting.
Investments
Voting -- Numerous suggestions were made. Alan suggested an extra option of "None of the above" be added to the list of share buys being proposed. Keith recommended a sifting vote and Martin proposed a single transferable vote. Phil asked why everyone hadn't read the minutes he wrote weeks ago explaining how the voting would work. "Because you wrote them!" was the unanimous response. Winfried asked whether we were a debating society or an investment club. This led to a long discussion.
We voted on the voting system and decided upon Martin's single transferable vote system with an option to vote for none of the above.
Share-buy proposals -- Seven sound proposals were put forward, some on the message board and some at the meeting. Companies proposed were:
Autonomy (James)
Baltimore Technologies (Nigel)
British Aerospace (Ewan)
Carlton United (Rob)
FI Group (Martin)
Marconi (formerly GEC) (Rob)
NXT (Phil)
Any other business
The Media Club bar was too noisy to hold a meaningful debate about shares (that's the last time I'm recommending to anyone that they hold Investment Club meetings in pubs!). Having said that, it has the benefit of serving food and Renée ordered (and ate) a haddock dish which looked rather nice.
Date, time and location of next meeting
This will be held between 1pm and 2pm on Wednesday 5th January 2000 in the office.
Fool USA