Evil Knievil: It pays to be a lawyer
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It’s mighty strange that Mike Lynch has been charged by the DoJ with defrauding Hewlett Packard whereas it was widely considered over here that Autonomy’s accounting was very dodgy – which state of affairs would have been known throughout H-P’s takeover due diligence. All one can say at this stage is that it pays to be a lawyer.
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It is reported elsewhere that Neil Woodford has been selling BTG (LON:BTG) stock for cash when there is a cash bid awaiting completion – so he has inevitably been taking a discount with an implied interest cost considerably greater than he could possibly compensate for elsewhere. If so, he must be in serious fund management trouble: the pressure of encashment by fund holders should surely not be dealt with in this manner.
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The chairman reckons that in the not too distant future there will be one helluva bounce for UK domestic-facing equities (be it noted that this category excludes FTSE majors which, typically, are all benefiting from weak sterling). He suggests lining up to bet on sterling versus the euro.
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Finally, I have had an amusing couple of days going long on Ted Baker (LON:TED) since the #MeToo movement is beginning to bore me and, more importantly, the women who shop at Ted Baker. Indeed, a straw poll suggests that these women have never heard of Ray Kelvin. My long position would have done alright if it were not for this morning’s trading statement which is a bit downbeat. Nothing to do with Ray at all.
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