Borrowing stock is nowadays much more expensive than ever it used to be. This is because the banks have given up on trusting one another. There is the further problem that the spread firms decide to nick a further c. 3% p.a. I do not blame them – after all, they are declaredly acting for…
One must be clear that lending money is not easy. It is necessary to judge the propensity of the debtor to repay. Many people think that this is easy whereas in fact it is not. However, throughout history people have been hard at it. For instance ten years ago just when the High Street clearers…
Readers may recall my reservation over buying Six Hundred Group (SIXH) in that the price was so low there had to be the possibility of a hidden horror. Well, this morning’s figures for the year ended 1st April 2017 put all that to bed. These results are very encouraging indeed. Tangible Net Asset Value is…
Every now and then the sun breaks through: today’s Times reports that Tom Hayes’s case is to be reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Just on the central points raised by The Times it is amazing to me that he was ever convicted let alone sentenced to a staggering fourteen years (subsequently reduced by…
Caribbean Investment (LON:CIHL) stands at 15p offer. The price declined 5p since it went ex div of 20p a week back. The div is of course a share in Midway whose sole asset is a claim against the Belize Government of 20p per Midway share. As far as I am aware there is a fair…
Four former directors of Barclays have been charged by the SFO this morning with breaches of this and that. It all centres round a payment of £322m to the Qataris who subscribed for the very necessary refinancing of Barclays – £4.5bn in June 2008 topped up with a further £7.3bn in October 2008. I remember…
I yesterday bought Watchstone (LON:WTG) again – this time at 142p. My reason is that I guess that the Slater and Gordon suit against WTG is nonsense. Subsequent to my purchase I was favoured with the following comment from a pal who follows WTG: “The Slater and Gordon case is cobblers but the CEO of…
Mitie (LON:MTO) published their full year results to 31st March 2017 this morning. They are really bad and there is little sign that things will get better in the short term and, quite possibly, in the longer term. That makes them a sell in my book at 265p which is up 18p on the day.…
I was going to kick off this morning’s diary by referring to a madhouse and base it on stocks like BooHoo (LON:BOO), FeverTree (LON:FEVR) etc .etc. Instead we get the general election results. I think people are forgetting that Corbyn’s manifesto was and remains based on non-existent money. These are the politics of the madhouse.…
It took a day or two but, finally, Molins (LON:MLIN) has started to come good. MLIN has today announced the sale of its “Instrumentation and Tobacco Machinery” division for £27.5m net of all taxes and fees. Given that MLIN had net assets of £35m and goodwill of £15m and that goodwill has also been sold…
