Evil discusses Quindell, Tyratech, HSBC and Philip of Macedon… I owe readers an apology in that when I declared that Morgan Stanley had bought 25m Quindell (QPP) there had already been an RNS issued to the effect that they had sold back to below 3%. I am told that they had 4.9% ex Tosca and…
Evil discusses Phosphorus Holdco PIK Toggle bonds, Afren, Quindell and the Grand National… Back on Phosphorus Holdco PIK Toggle bonds, it has been pointed out to me that BC Partners are not fools and would not have seen this £205m dividend paid away unless they had taken advice to show that such payment would be…
Evil discusses Phosphorus Holdco, William Hill and HSBC… Phosphorus Holdco, a subsidiary of Phosphorus Jersey Limited (controlled by BC Partners) and the holding company of Phones4U issued in September 2013 £205m in PIK Toggle notes. The purpose was to finance Phosphorus’s £200m dividend payment ultimately to BC Partners and which was paid the same week.…
Evil discusses Phosphorus Holdco Plc senior bonds, South African kleptocrats and the Miliband-Fink tax avoidance spat… I have bought Phosphorus Holdco Plc £205m Toggle PIK 10% 2018 at 3.8p. It comes in lots of 100,000. My reason to buy is that this is the senior bond outstanding on the liquidation of Phones4U and this debt…
Evil discusses Dominic Strauss-Khan, Amira Nature Foods and Geiger counter… It is recorded that a long dead British prime minister, on learning that a 65 year old government servant had been caught in flagrante in St. James’s Park with a lady of the night in sub zero temperatures, declared that it made one proud to…
Fifty or so years ago, when Panorama kicked off, it was a respected programme. The edition I saw last night covering HSBC’s customers who may prefer not to pay tax (there’s a surprise) was pure garbage. As it happens, wearing my accountant’s hat, I used to do back tax cases and know a bit about…
As readers know, we last week featured Crispin Odey’s review of the prospects for Western economies and, quite possibly, others in the coming years. There is no obvious explanation as to how this despairing prospect has come to settle in. However, one feature stands out: we are grossly overgoverned by centre-left drivellers. These dreadfully silly…
I met Sean Daley getting on for eight years ago. He had been CEO of Camco Corporation, operating in Kyrgyzstan and which was a subsidiary of what became 3DM Worldwide, now known as Environmental Recycling Technologies (AIM: ENRT). There was an attempt in Bishkek upon his life in July 2006 during which four gun shots,…
Evil discusses Asia Resource Minerals and Churchill Mining… Well, well, well. Nat Rothschild has underwritten a $100m placing at 25p a share for Asia Resource Minerals (ARMS). This is a big premium to the price ruling before the RNS this morning and, even now, the stock stands at a substantial discount to the issue price.…
Evil discusses Hargreaves Lansdown, Avanti Communications, Oxus Gold and vegetarianism… Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.), now 980p, is on a PE of 28 or whatever. But the easy days of handling funds are over and that rating is just too rich. ***** I closed my longstanding short in Avanti (AVN). I had to pay 245p which surprised…
