share consolidation

[osmetech]

hi ,
i've just loined t2w and am open some advice and opinions about some shares i bought around july 2001 (!) obviously that wasn't the best time to buy them but who knew what would take place 2 months later ,they were 1p ordinary shares and i bought several blocks of them over the space of a few weeks in osmetech ltd , totalling about 39000 in all, got the certificate stating this and all was fine , then about a year later for some reason i've never understood they re-issued another certificate stating each share was now worth 10p but that i only had 3900 of them now ,they've done nothing since i bought them so when i'm home (working abroad atm) i'll work out how much i spent in total on them ,then how much the price of each share will be until i break even and then just dump them ,could never understand the "consolidation" thing ,multiplying the value by 10 but diminshing the amount by the same multiple , seems pointless to someone who isn't very well informed about share dealing
anyway any opinions or advice would be very welcome ,
thanks

 

[megamuel]

According to my charting software, Osmetech were trading at around £1.20 per share in July 2001 and now they are trading at... Erm... £0.02 so 3900 shares would be worth.... £78, thats not going to get you a flight back from Afghanistan! Hope you didn't spent too much on them! By the way, if you want to cash them in you'll have to pay commision for that as well

As for consolidations/share splits, they do this when the share price becomes too low/high. For example, if the share prices becomes too low, they may make the share more expensive but reduce the amount of shares each individual owns. This will normally reduce the spread (difference between buy and sell price) and volatility and boost its liquidity making it easier to trade. A share split is when the price gets too high and they split the price and increase the numbers of shares held by the individuals.

Hmm... Sorry I am not very good at explaining things, its pretty difficult at 6am after a session! But I find the "Investopedia" website very good for finding out things like that, take a look there. I guess you probably don't care anymore now that your shares are only worth 78 squid

 

[foredog]

Yes, quite often if the shares go to a really low level they have a consolidation so the price now appears more "solid" eg you may invest in a stock that is 15p but not one that is 1.5.

 

[songcon]

There is a stock reverse split 10-1 in October 2005. So, there is nothing wrong with their piece of information.

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION FORM F-1 Osmetech plc
While marketing a limited number of eSensor 4800 Systems to validate our ...... shares (reflecting our 10-for-1 reverse stock split in October 2005) and ...
www.osmetech.com/pdf/BMT00098BMT004_BITS_N_2055.pdf -

http://www.osmetech.com/pdf/BMT00098BMT004_BITS_N_2055.pdf