saturday latte

It's important to remember than information takes time to disseminate through to people. The announcement didn't come out until very late afternoon yesterday.

The couple of hundred or so regular HC members in this forum have been with the stock a long while, know the ins-and-outs and are plugged in to the latest info. This is not so for most people who are currently slaving away at their day job. Retail investors may not even be aware of the situation until they read the weekend AFR over a latte Saturday morning.

The decision makers at investment companies will need time to work through the details and will still be hanging out for absolute confirmation next week. You can bet they are running the numbers as we type.

Because of all that has happened in the last 4 1/2 months, like it or not Centro has a stigma attached to it. There has been a deluge of bad news backed up by negative media reports. This will cause some investors to stay away, especially when there are a other bargains around.

In time though, sentiment will change as will the media. Analysts will start to get bullish on the stock as will some journos (we saw the beginnings of this in the AFR today). We'll see CNP or CER as 'stock pick of the week' in one of the daily rags at some stage and we'll probably get come coverage in the monthly publications. I dare say someone will do a 'corporate turnaround' story on the company soon as well. The LPT sector will come back into vogue.

When all this comes together, demand will increase and so will the SP. In time, divvies will appear and we'll see another jump. This will all be a distant, fun memory.

Warren B says to be successful you need one good idea a year. Centro was my 2008 idea... anyone working on the next one?

I'll have a latte thanks. No sugar.