Evil Diaries: A Squirrel Has Failed

Forty years ago it was commonly believed amongst businessmen that HMG had merely to recruit a businessman to streamline the Civil service and all would be well. Marks and Spencer’s Derek Rayner was called in by HMG. After a long time he came up with the brilliant idea that the Inland Revenue should stop sending out prepaid reply envelopes with correspondence emanating from it. He got a knighthood.

So I, being an efficient fellow, collected envelopes whenever they were issued by the Inland Revenue and used one or two of them from time to time. But they came in far faster than I ever used them and, as would a squirrel, I stored them. Last week my wife and I moved home and office and had to throw away hundreds of this carefully stored hoard. This would induce depression in most. But I am doing my best not to succumb.

*****

DARKtrace is now 260p and I reckon that the great buyback threat to shorters has come and gone. Further, Mike Lynch, the founder of Autonomy and eminence grise behind Darktrace, has had his application to the High Court in London to resist extradition to the United States in respect of his conduct at Autonomy turned down.

*****

Robert Corden, an extremely experienced fund manager, sent me some notes last week extoling the case for buying Saga (SAGA), the marketing vehicle aimed at the over-fifties. The shares now stand at 125p.

Although NAV including intangibles exceeds the capitalisation where I prefer to write off intangibles and have another look, the fact is that SAGA is solvent and has the potential to double. On balance this seems a good punt.