UK 17:59 Thursday, 8 October 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
A couple of bits of excitement this Tuesday. First, you may have read from the UK insurance company RSA (RSA) that it was taken over late last month and that the exiting chairman was able to conclude that about three hundred years ‘the acquisition of RSA has delivered attractive, certain value for our shareholders and I wish Intact and Tryg every success for the future’. I wonder what I will be doing with the decent cash return they have paid? Certainly was not a bad buy a year and a bit more ago. It is also nice to see shares in Biffa (BIFF) moving back above three quid each today.
I have had a positive view on the waste management company Biffa (BIFF) for a while now, mentioning last October here that ‘on a similar multiple for its likely earnings for the 2021 or 2022 full years and this is how you get a three quid odd share price target’. Back then the stock was about 220 pence, but today it is almost at my three quid target...and it is nothing to do with its next set of numbers (which are due next week). Earlier today, Biffa announced it would be buying the collections business and ‘certain recycling assets’ from its industry peer Viridor. So why are its shares up nicely this morning?
Biffa plc (BIFF) describes itself as “the UK's leading sustainable waste management business”. This FTSE 250 company has, like many, suffered from the lockdown restrictions but previously not as significantly as it feared and there looks further recovery and growth potential ahead not discounted in the share price...
Corporate deals always provide insight. If you have been around for a while, then you will know that a bunch of deals struck in 1997, 1999 and 2007 typically did not age well. The jury remains out for the last couple of years but, suffice to say, the old mantra of 'price is what you pay and value is what you get' is still hugely relevant. That ramble brings us to my old mucker Biffa (BIFF), which is active in the waste and recycling business...
Generally I dislike prevarication but certainly a bit of patience is a good trait for an investor. I am not sure why I wasn’t holding shares in Biffa (BIFF) because - as I noted here in June - the specialist waste and recycling company plays into a number of attractive structural themes including tighter regulation, recycling and participation in energy from waste. Today a trading update...
You may recall back in September I rhapsodised about waste company Biffa (BIFF) observing - after pacing through its capital markets day presentation - that 'the company is exposed to themes such as tighter regulation, recycling and participation in energy from waste'. A quick look at the shares over the last nine months showed that my hopes of a three quid share price proved correct. Having done all the difficult work, I really should have got back in the stock after it nearly halved at the time of the March lows. Anyhow, here we are in June with the share having regained about half the decline and today's full year numbers update is really in two parts – as are so many corporations reporting up to 31st March…
I do have a little sympathy with the green brigade because if you think about the essence of economics, it is all about the efficient and sustainable use of factors of production. However, where even the financial world has gone mad is the rise and rise and rise of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, which has certainly overhung shares in sectors such as tobacco, energy and the automotive space globally. And do not even get me started on green activists who do not want to fly on planes or start families until climate change issues are 'sorted'.
I have loved up Biffa (BIFF) on these pages before, calling the UK's premier business waste collection company in November a buy based on 'big themes...such as tighter regulation, recycling and participation in energy from waste'. The shares have risen - along with the general market - since November but what has caught my eye today are comments from the company that 'UK recycling confusion' needs to be 'sorted'...
