John Phelps’s portfolio

WE made our fond farewells to Greenock-based British Polythene Industries on Wednesday morning after its shareholders nodded their final approval to take over terms from the much larger RPC Group.

The share quote is not due to disappear from the official list until tomorrow but we took the earlier opportunity to book a hefty 45 per cent profit on our notional investment rather than wait for the mixture of cash and shares due under terms of the bid.

Brokers at Credit Suisse, for example, are telling their followers to buy shares in the enlarged group in expectation of a 20 per cent price increase.

We tend to agree and have reinvested most of the BPI proceeds in a fresh investment in RPC shares for our 2016 portfolio.

We have set our usual stop-loss target at which we suggest followers should consider selling on any major price reversal.

This figure is set 10 per cent below the highest price achieved by each of our individual investments and is adjusted on an upwards only basis at our mid-week review of progress.

The latest moves follow another good week for our four portfolios which saw their total valuation rise by another 1.25 per cent.

Pride of place went to the 2015 selections which put on 3.3 per cent after a sharp rise in the price of Edinburgh medical software group Craneware in anticipation of good news at its annual results presentation on September 6.

Craneware’s popularity also helped boost the 2013 portfolio which recorded an overall increase of 1.0 per cent while the 2016 selections put on 0.8 per cent despite some profit taking in biotechnology group Shire ahead of interim results due this Tuesday.

The 2014 list showed virtually no change over the week after a good showing by Smiths Group was cancelled out by small falls in Reckitt Benckiser, National Grid and Royal Dutch Shell.