I caught up with Molins (MLIN) yesterday afternoon in the light of their results statement to 30th June 2016. The pension deficit (i.e. the excess of the computation of actuarial liabilities over fund assets of c. £350m) is £10m or so. Curiously, the accounting standard does not insist that this liability is reflected on the…
As it happens I sold my family’s Baillie Gifford Shin (BGS), a Japanese equities investment trust, about four weeks ago. I have heard it claimed that the trend of dividends in Japan is so strong that Japanese equities will not go down. But in what currency will they be paid? The following clip (40 minutes,…
Rather more than a year ago I here considered Phosphorus bonds. These were issued by that company which itself served as a holding company for Phones4U. Shortly after the £200m fundraise that very sum was sent up to its very own holding company BC Partners. And not long after that the entire structure collapsed. Even…
Orosur (OMI) reported this morning in respect of the year ended 31st May 2016. Debt is now well under control and, of course, since the year end, trading conditions have considerably improved. The profit declared may be rather paltry but it has the merit that it includes a lot of writing down of equipment long…
The chairman was in a very good mood yesterday afternoon when remarking on Team GB’s stunning incidence of success in Rio. He sees that this indicates that we’ll do very well once freed of the EU’s shackles. I do not know what is the cause and the effect considered in these remarks but there is…
As some readers know, the Person from Porlock came to Coleridge’s door as he was writing Kubla Khan. The interruption caused Coleridge to lose his train of thought with disastrous circumstances. I am a little sceptical of this since some years ago I dreamt an absolutely rollicking farce along the lines of the best Noel…
Dame Lowell Goddard‘s resignation is in a sense mildly comic. The first two birds, Butler-Sloss and Woolf, were compelled to leave since the leaders of the allegedly abused insisted B-S and W were not impartial since they had had past associations of a very limited nature with those who could potentially be accused or interviewed…
Readers will recall comments made here a few months ago concerning Tom Hayes, who is in jail pursuant to his Libor-rigging trial. He suffers from Asperger’s (a condition which itself raises questions) but is assisted by his wife, Sarah, who is clearly a brick. In today’s Times he writes an open letter to Harry (Wilson,…
Cameron has continued in character by awarding his accomplices resignation honours. One of them has got good legs. The others have not displayed their legs for clearance by me. However, Sir Desmond Swayne MP advises that these honours are a “relatively light way of paying off debts of honour”. But it should be noted that…
Clearly, the market’s view is that William Hill (WMH) is not going out at 360p. This has enabled me to buy 35,000 at 314p this morning. There must be monopoly enquiry fears if a bidder steps up to the plate and where it is already deeply involved in the British betting business. But there are…
