I first encountered Jacob Rees-Mogg about fifteen years ago when he, his father and I were speakers at an investment conference. I reckoned Jacob was a bit of a prig. Then, about eighteen months ago, I saw him on Channel 4 speaking at a Bingo meeting of northern women. I thought his tone was condescending…
Getting on for forty years ago Tesco (TSCO) decided to offer its customers something along the lines of Fresh Start which was just a discounted offering. HMRC took it into its fat head to argue that this was a new trade and under the barmy regime of Old Labour a cessation of a trade had…
One of the weekend’s colour mags featured a photo of a lush valley somewhere and said to contain the quinine tree. The pic was taken by Tim Warrilow, one of the founders of Fevertree (FEVR) as illustration of something. As J D Salinger would have said this is pure horse. However, I foresee an extension…
Talk about furious paddling: not a day passes when Mitie (MTO) does not announce a further buy back of several hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of stock. I know they have been ever supportive (just why?) of bankers. But I cannot believe that anybody else is buying. Now 284p. But there is no buyback…
Dominic Chappell seems to me to have behaved criminally at BHS. It’ll be interesting to see if HMG gets round to doing anything. Further, Green seems to have found that BHS was a hopeless cause and, instead of putting it into insolvency procedures, sold all his shares to Chappell for £1. This is proof that…
It is daily becoming clearer that Cameron has made a colossal blunder since even if he wins the Brexit vote it is inevitable that the causes of discontent that underlie the Brexiteers’ stance will remain where Cameron and his chum Osborne have lied and lied to dismiss them. The inevitable effect must be to generate…
Well, I hardly know where to begin on the accounts to December 2015 published by Watchstone (WTG) today. But the first thing that stands out is that the North American investments, Hymex and ingenie, are not bust. Far from it – there is no mention whatsoever of any concerns on this front. What are they…
In recent weeks I have been delayed in being called to supper on Wednesday evenings such that I start watching on Channel 4 a vet, Noel Fitzpatrick, who has a substantial practice, styled Fitzpatrick Referrals, in Surrey. Surrey is not a poor county and therefore there are lots of pet owners who are well heeled.…
The Watchstone (WTG) IR department tell me that the December 2015 results should be out by 31st May. If I am right about this company, the shares should rise sharply on the RNS. ***** The chairman sent me a brief note on Avingtrans (AVG) issued by Hybridan’s William Lynne. In essence AVG is capitalised at…
I bought Watchstone (WTG) again last week, this time at 220p. The PR people, Tulchan, remark that WTG has always reported by end May. I continue to value WTG at 400p+. ***** No doubt to increase its management fees earned AXA is recruiting luvvies by distancing itself from tobacco companies. But it is impossible to…
