Odds Against is a Dick Francis novel written in 1965 published by Pan Macmillan, London, 2010. Mr. Francis wrote over 40 best sellers dealing with thrillers. In this particular book, the plot is a real estate speculator is trying to buy a racetrack in order to tear it down and sell to housing companies to build houses. Since the book is a thriller, the normal offering of a higher price is not done. The speculator tries to ensure the racetrack loses money by various unsavoury means, to ensure the company loses money and does not pay its dividend. The thinking is many of the shareholders bought for the racetrack and are emotionally tied to it. If the dividend is not paid, shares will be sold and portfolios shifted to those racetracks which do pay dividends. Any remaining holdouts will accept a small capital gain. The real estate speculator ends up with a large capital gain based on capturing value in the land.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, many successful companies which pay dividends own real estate which is not valued at market values. There is extra value in the shares and as long as the company makes a profit and pays a dividend the value of the stock does not tend to be reflected in the share price. As economic cycles are gone through the stock market at various times will value the land as if the company is in a position to sell it (very often the company is using the land for operations which makes selling difficult) Some companies are seemingly more valuable for their real estate than their operations, however a useful strategy is to ensure the dividend can be paid from operations and the real estate and other assets are a bonus

There is more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.