Not entirely surprisingly, the Plus 500 (PLUS) bid from Playtech has broken down since the FCA was not prepared to give PLUS clearance. Good old FCA (I never thought I’d write that). But the share price is barely changed down at 355p. Take PLUS’s declaration this morning that “Regulatory compliance capability has been strengthened.” One…
The Next (NXT) 7,835p share price valuation seems to assume low earnings growth in comparison with the rates actually achieved over the last five years. It has also become a high dividend paying stock – at least for this year and next according to consensus forecasts. The company is still growing its store and directory…
Jim Slater has died, aged 86. I revelled in his friendship. A few years ago, the BBC featured a rather lurid documentary claiming that a number of financiers regularly gathered at The Clermont Club in a private dining room to organise the finances of British industry and commerce to suit themselves. This was nonsense as…
It’s an ill wind that makes you think “perhaps I should get solar before the government tariff ends”. Actually the tariff isn’t the main consideration, unless you’re likely to export 100% of your generated electricity (and perhaps not even then). It’s having a system where you need the power you generate that nets you more…
As ever, trying to judge what is going on inside a company from the utterances of John Walmsley is completely impossible. But I am not selling Pantheon (PANR). Now 90p. Anyway he and Ignacio Salazar of Orosur (OMI) were round here yesterday afternoon – John is also of course chairman of OMI. My difficulty is…
Sainsbury at 253p after the interim results. The traditional quoted food retail sector is still undergoing a big change on an undetermined time scale. On that basis, Sainsbury shares may not look an obvious buy. However, I argue that the shares are attractive when the financial fundamentals are recognised. The shares, after the results of the first half of the current year, are…
The recent market weakness has created a possible a buying opportunity for P2P Global Investments (P2P), the specialist investment trust that provides exposure to a portfolio of peer-to-peer loans. Its shares have fallen from more than £11.50 in February to around £10 and now trade at a small discount to NAV with a prospective yield…
My wife and I lived in central Africa for four years and thus encountered the statistic that not hundreds but many thousands of lives of young African children are lost each year due to snake bites. This does not surprise since the fact is that the puff adder and the Gaboon viper, to name but…
The appalling attacks in Paris in the late evening of Friday, 13 November 2015 will linger in the annals of infamy for many years to come. About 130 innocent people lost their lives and many more were seriously injured. No doubt the number of fatalities will rise in the days to come. On 31 October…
There were stories some time ago about people being duped into so-called early release of funds from their pensions. The problem with that is the fees were exorbitant and there was somewhere between a contingency and a certainty that the tax relief given to the contributions would be demanded back by the revenue at some…
