The Evil Diaries: Pigging and Porking

Evil discusses Mar City…

Since the rewards of pigging and porking (see comments passim) are so high it is easily understood why stock promoters engage in the practice.

The most recent instance of which I am aware is going on at Mar City (MAR) where the controlling shareholders, Tony and Maggie Ryan – they hold about 50% of Mar City – have seen this company sell on credit to Mar City Developments Limited (henceforth MCDL), a company privately owned by the Ryans. The problem is that MCDL has not been able to pay for goods purchased on time or anything like.

This is not quite as villainous as it first appears since the Ryans have never hidden the common ownership of these two companies – as longstanding readers know, serious pig and porking in its purest form requires the private company seemingly to be unconnected with the quoted vehicle. But, on this occasion, the effect is the same: the market is very sceptical as to the true trading strength of Mar City.

The Ryans have now borrowed £10m personally on the security offered by their Mar City shareholding and paid this over to Mar City on behalf of MCDL, which still owes a lot. Good on the Ryans. But their lender/financier is HSBC who have the right to ditch the security should it fall below 34p. Mar City is currently 48p bid. 34p is only a shiver downwards.

There will be some who will claim that Mar City’s share price cannot possibly decline – after all, it’s property innit. But Mar City’s field of operations is not prime; indeed it is most undistinguished. And when this portfolio/stock for sale catches a cold it could be the death of it. So I discount tnav claimed to be 62p at least. I am short at 48p.