Monday morning I logged onto my trading site, and found that the shares had already recovered to $16.29. I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained, and put in a Buy order at $15.80. At COB Monday they were still up over the $16 mark but by some fluke, yesterday morning at start of trade, they dipped sufficiently to fill my order, before closing again at $16.49.
I'm pretty happy. These shares pay a fully-franked dividend of $2.00 each, while the tax-deductible interest I'll pay amounts to less than half the yearly dividend. Even if the share price fails to recover (which I doubt; it's a solid company with a huge exposure to non-discretionary spending) the dividend alone will prop up my savings by a nice little sum. Obviously, though, the hope (expectation!) is that the share price will improve.
I have a UK trip planned for June 2010 and will sell this share parcel shortly before I go. As I'll have held them for over 12 months I'll only pay tax on half of the capital gain. Even if they only recover half of their lost ground it will add a few thou to my spending money. Of course if the share price goes backwards, and/or the company goes broke, I'm out of pocket - but this company has quite a diversified holding with solid performance across most sectors so I'm feeling a bit upbeat about it all.
Fingers crossed.