Minutes:

Minutes of Hot Tips meeting in TC7 at 1:30pm on 9th July 1999.

Present: Martin Ayub, Nicole Smith, Chris James, Neil Barron and Keith Longmuir. By Phone: Steve Mantz, Paul Garcia and Steve Walker

Martin reported on how our portfolio had performed this month. The prices were (change): Asda 217p (+33), Delta 146 (-7.5), JJB 310 (+17.5), Lynx 156.5 (-0.5), Photobition 225(n/c), Rentokil 231, Richmond 80 (-5), SFI 216 (+2.5), Slug&Lettuce 152 (-2), Tesco 166 (-24).

We had some discussion about the above prices. Asda is obviously much higher following the 220p bid from Wal-Mart. That looks like proceeding at the moment.

JJB was higher after both a share buy-back and positive views from city types who visited JJB's HQ last week.

Tesco's fall can be attributed to worries about the effect Wal-Mart's arrival will have on both retail prices and margins, plus how their banking deals will impact on the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury.

Paul then told us about the Kingston Communications floatation. It now seems that we will not be able to purchase shares directly but will have to go through a broker. The shares are only being made available to brokers, employees and residents of Hull. Also it looks as if the offer will be heavily oversubscribed.

Consequently the provisions we set aside at the last meeting have been increased from £6K to £8K in the expectation that we won't receive that many shares.

We were then going to look at our share tips, but abandoned that after:

Martin then made a proposal to the meeting. He suggested that due to a number of factors - such as the likely autumn downturn, poor turnout of the club's members at meetings together with the lack of a proper treasurer and a number of members who are looking at leaving the club - now might be a good time to wind up the club and distribute the assets, with a view to reforming the club in the new year.

He envisioned a smaller club comprised only of those who wished to take an active involvement in the club's running. Ideally he suggested that we could return funds to the members by mid-September.

This proposal was well received at the meeting, but due to the importance of the suggestion, Martin has emailed all the members so that they can vote that way if they are unable to attend the next meeting where the matter will be decided.

So, then, the next meeting will be earlier than usual so that if the winding-up proposal is approved we can start making selling decisions sooner rather than later.

Consequently the next meeting will be in 3 weeks on the 30th July. This is obviously a biggie, so you really should make every effort to attend and have your say.

Martin Ayub,
Secretary.