The Evil Diaries: Mitie, Avesco and Watchstone

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 programme at Avesco (AVS) whose latest results are bang up to speed, bar the noting of a bit of disappointment at the edges. AVS has got the cash and, of course, the compelling case for buying back (i.e. the share price is comfortably below tangible net asset value).

The same can be said of Watchstone (WTG) but, here, I guess that the non-executives like to keep the workers under the cosh.

Meanwhile I have started reading BettyBoo by Claudia Pineiro, apparently Argentina’s premier whodunnit writer. I bought pursuant to sitting at the back of seemingly a predominantly expatriate Argentinian audience at Daunt’s bookshop in the Fulham Road. You can tell them from their being tall, handsome and tending to be sallow in complexion.

Finally, I offer from the world of work:

Job interviewer: “And what do you regard as your greatest weakness?”
Applicant:          “My honesty.”
JI:                       “I wouldn’t regard honesty as a weakness.”
A:                        “I really don’t care what you think.”