Rolls-Royce (#RR.) – 94.2% rights issue take-up, remainder with underwriters
- 2020-11-12 07:55:44
UK 15:12 Sunday, 4 October 2026
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I recently covered Rolls Royce (RR.) as being worth a look as a long term investment once it had managed to refinance its balance sheet, and news on that front came today.
Rolls Royce (RR.) is one of the most famous British companies, and even though it no longer associated with the car brand, it is still renowned around the world for its engineering prowess. But despite its reputation, it has struggled in recent years and the arrival of Covid-19 in combination with a poor set of results for 2019, not to mention impending debt repayments, caused the share price to plummet back in late February and throughout March. Since then, apart from a brief recovery in early June when the markets bounced back, it has seen a further decline and is now trading at close to an 85% discount compared to where it was a couple of years back...
Tom Winnifrith has been railing against Innovate UK with regard to splurging taxpayer cash on less that wholly deserving applications for funding from companies which could turn to the public markets or which have returned time and time again for more taxpayer cash with no discernible advance shown from the last payout. Today I turn to the Rolls-Royce of taxpayer cash consumption. It is indeed Rolls Royce (RR.)
In the last fifty days I have written about aerospace name Rolls-Royce (RR.) twice already before today. The first was to ask the question 'when the money raising was coming?' and the second was to appraise whether a selling activist shareholder was bonkers or rational. So finally - as previewed in both articles - what did the formal first half numbers say?...
Last month I observed that investors in aerospace engines and military supplier Rolls-Royce (RR.) should 'gird your loins to be tapped for an additional contribution to the coffers' and noted there would be a lot of homework analysis for investors to be undertaking in late August when the next set of numbers is set to be declared. Well it seems that West Coast activist investor ValueAct does not have the patience to wait as it has dumped its entire holding to crystalise a massive loss. Activist investing is not always a one-way route to profitability...
Since I last observed about Rolls-Royce (RR.) back in early April that it was 'a longer-term play on a high barrier to entry area', the shares have been all over the place. Today they are back near the lows of their recent range after a first half trading update which was informative...but did not answer the big question and debate about the shares out there...
Time for a tips of the year update. Obviously it is grisly thanks to our old pal the coronavirus. However you have to keep looking and thinking even when it is not going well...
I last wrote on Rolls Royce (RR.) in September where I noted that 'stuttering engines at Rolls-Royce sounds like a horror show - imagine being on a plane if it all went wrong! - but I would buy the shares now and below seven quid if Mr Market gives an opportunity. Ultimately I see them testing the high of the last 52 week range at c. 10 quid again'. And despite what was undoubtedly a very messy update yesterday, I retain that view today…
There is quite a lot of news out for a Friday. I was pleased to see that the industrial to medical conglomerate Smiths Group (SMIN) - which I wrote enthusiastically about in March - has blasted today deeper into my then hoped for 1600-1800p share price range…
