The Evil Diaries: Pets at Home, Petro Matad and Molins

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. They need to be since Mr Fitzpatrick cannot charge buttons for his work. (He himself is clearly a pet lover.) The message to take away is that pet owners are a special breed who will spend eye-watering sums to get the best for their pets.

It is against this background that I have to accept that Pets At Home (PETS) who reported today may well stay up in the ether for a long time. Still, the balance sheet is thin and, one day, this will tell. It’s not a short at 250p. Equally it is not an investment.

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To my amazement the EBRD sold a further 15m Petro Matad (MATD) on 24th May – this is on top of the 15m sold last week. This is not how to sell stock which is undervalued. Indeed, it is a boredom sale, which is nothing to do with professional investment. Anyway I bought MATD on this announcement. Who would not?

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Molins (MLIN) announced that its FD had bought a further 23,000 shares at around 60p. This is not remarkable but it indicates to me that MLIN is not going bust any time soon. I still think it is a strong buy under, say, 80p though very probably set to go rather higher.

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Finally, about five months ago I drew attention to the plight of Tom Hayes who has been disgracefully mistreated by the judicial system and now sits in gaol serving 11 years as a result of his Libor witch hunt trial. Even the most casual inspection of the facts shows that this is a grotesque miscarriage of justice. Fortunately for Tom he has a tenacious and intelligent wife who is also a solicitor. She ensures that Tom’s cause is properly highlighted and, as a result, Lord James (Google for his career) spoke in the House of Lords on 24th May. Here is the link to that speech: http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/a1f12e11-5c98-475f-abd4-081471321a10?in=18:36:27&out=00:00:00