my view on current matters, page-8

Guys stop looking at NTA, LTV etc.

The biggest driver (or brake) on VPG's share price is confidence in the company.

People lost confidence in VPG because they appeared to overpay for a UK funds management business at the height of the RE boom (personally on a number of levels I feel the price was relatively fair).
People lost confidence as they branched out into RE Finance & structuring which went pear shaped and strayed from the bread and butter real estate fund business of owning real estate.
People lost confidence as the business has/d such a large exposure to development & development profit which took a huge hit with the deflation of the RE boom.

For me its pretty simple the share price wont increase much until people can see the following:
A) ability to return to their grass roots of maximising real estate income and holding quality assets
B) ability to maximse existing capital and try and recoup some money from the re debt business
C) prove that the acquisition in the UK was a good business bought for a reasonable price. (they need to do this through good funds management practices)
D) they need to push the UK business to attract bank repo work out schemes, fund work out schemes and they need to retain and grow their own funds business.
E) they need to try and build some sort of book for the construction & development arm of the business as they have a deep pool of talent here which should be used more effectively.
F) they need to prove that they have a definite plan for returning the company to profitablity & a plan for returning divs to shareholders (THIS IS KEY)

I think they made good decisions and poor decisions leading up to the financial crisis and associated RE market declines, but who didnt? I am not sure that you could name a trust/fund/company/ or AREIT in this space that didnt make a couple of heady decisions (some more so than others).

Its all about the old addage, "the proof is in the pudding". If you believe in management, believe in the company and its holdings, then stop worrying. (pending another significant dip, which I think isnt impossible, I feel VPG will be ok. Yes they have destroyed a whole heap of shareholder value in the last 12-18months but they are not alone there)

All of the above are just my thoughts so feel free to call them pish as I am always open to new points of view.