Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

>>>The Crown is sometimes the only place left open in the evenings in Lynton to get anything at all now and you have to book ...

It sounds not much different then from the past occasions when I have stayed at Lynton or Lynmouth.

Mind you, I can recall the days in my area when the tea-shops and cafes used to close at 4pm or maybe 4:30pm (some still do!) with a very few staying open until 5pm, but the various restaurants or pubs did not start evening food until 7pm, so once you had finished your "afternoon in town" you either had to 'kick your heels' for a couple of hours awaiting dinner or simply drive home and not bother to come back.

 

I am expectant to know if the Blackmoor pub Company has declared a dividend on its £1m and odd shares, including £253,000 to the Trust. A modest 3% dividend would be reasonable and produce £7,500. I might also see if the rumour that the loan might be swopped for shares has any foundation - that could mean a reduction on the 5% pa the Company has to pay and avoid having to pay it back at the rate of £25,000 a year. Most importantly I shall expect to see the exposure of shares and loan totalling only £350,000 as we have been repeatedly told it is. After all why would they lie about such a thing ?

 

We booked into the Crown for Saturday night for fear of having to drive home in the dark, and found the bar full of people we'd just seen in the Town Hall. So, a great plus. Last time we stayed up Sinai Hill, where my chauffeuse found the turn off it to the hotel a bit scary, so gave that a miss, but the Crown, including the food was good and very reasonably priced. That previous time the hotel recommended booking at restaurants and gave us a list, which turned out to be of varying quality and very expensive. Maybe running a restaurant in Lynton is a seasonal activity so they have to charge over £100 for 2 with a bottle of wine, but we shan't be doing that again.

 

I doubt that any company could pay a dividend after 8-9 months trading. No doubt there will be a lot of things to pay for (including stock), and mortgage, loan interest, loan repayments would (rightly) be prioritised in this situation. As a shareholder myself (in a small way) and a businessman, I would hope to see consolidation, and business development taking precedence.

 

I remember well the late Richard Bullock from. Surrey staying up Sinai Hill, we gave him a lift back from one of our East Grp dinners in I think it was the Rockvale, he didn't fancy the walk back in horizontal rain or the climb up to his hotel after the grand dinner we had hehe

I sure miss him.

 

Entirely reasonable, but raising interesting questions about the quality of the security that the charity has in the pub.

 

Not really. Two totally different things.

 

Not when there's a £250k loan involved.

 

Yes two totally different things.

 

In theory, yes. In practice, much more tightly linked as the Trust is both an investor in and a lender to the pub. If the pub is not paying dividends, because it is having to hoard capital, that would raise concerns over the affordability of that investment, and hence back up to the decisions taken over the purchase.

 

Nope. Totally wrong.

 

In the interest of both shareholders and lenders, isn't it better to repay loans before issuing dividends?

 

Absolutely right!

 

In which case it is surely rational for a shareholder to convert shares to loan, rather than the other way round?

Meanwhile, I remain concerned that this "rational" decision on capital allocation is reducing the rate of return on the investment of the L&BRT in "B" shares for LBBC.

 

You can’t convert shares to a loan.

 

Agreed. But loans can be converted to shares. Which would seem rather odd.

 

Interestingly, it took 12 years to get the last L&BRT AofA amendments reported to the Charity Commission/Companies House, but the results of Saturday's meeting have appeared today!

 

Technically speaking the loan is treated as payment for the shares - is converted in other words. Companies can of course (subject to a resolution at a EGM or AGM) buy back shares as well.

 

Unless you are in the leveraged buyout industry (eg our water companies)

 

On the CC website? Or do you mean Companies House?

When I looked at the CC, all trustees were present, and the Articles still refer to the 2007 version.