Friday newspaper share tips: Worldpay, Foxtons

Two of the original investors in Worldpay, private equity holders Advent International and Bain Capital, were allowed to dispose of a third of their stakes via a placing, with more to come, The Times’s Tempus pointed out to readers.

The move was arguably justified by the fact that there was high demand for the shares from other investors, hence the decision by the investment banks acting as bookrunners to waive the lock-in on the stock.

Indeed, the placing was “well oversubscribed” Tempus said, but investors should be aware that the remaining 28.0% of the firm in the hands of private equity will hit the market at some point.

Furthermore, the company’s latest full-year figures revealed that earnings in the US went into reverse last year, with management now admitting a turnaround will take longer and be more expensive than had been thought.

A first dividend is expected is due later in the year but the yield will be “insignificant”, the tipster said.

Given that the shares are changing hands on 38 times 2016’s earnings and 26 times those for 2017, together with that private equity overhand, there is no reason to pick-up the shares at present, Tempus concluded.

Co-op chief Richard Pennycook asked for a paycut following a successful restructuring, including plugging a £1.5bn hole in the bank unit’s balance sheet, the Financial Times’s Lex column said.

His pay in 2015 was £3.6m whereas his base salary now is £750,000.

Whereas his predecessor said the Co-op was “ungovernable”, Pennycook claims the job has become easier.

That rank socialism makes for an interesting contrast when juxtaposed with Foxtons, which just raised its boss’s salary by a fifth despite a year of weak profits and a drop in the share price, Lex said.

The flighty performance of London house prices is not the fault of the boss? No company wants to pay in the bottom of the quartile?

Sometimes high executive pay is justified by the past and sometimes by the future, hard to say.

Compare and contrast if you will, but in pay as in any market, you get what you can get away with, Lex said.