Evil Knievil: Trading updates

A chum in the world of property assures me that Intu (LON:INTU) has had it. The test of course will be the June quarter day in two weeks’ time when the reality of non-payment of rents will have to be confronted.

The problem is the life of the past particle. At 7p INTU is capitalised at around £100m and is therefore capable of bouncing around quite a bit – after all INTU was once capitalised in many billions: this produces sentimental buying.

But I still think it is worth selling now. There really is nothing left.

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The really interesting set of results due out next week is those of De La Rue (LON:DLAR). The trading update of a fortnight ago was really very positive.

The trouble is that there is a lot of intangibles in the balance sheet and sentiment will play a strong part in supporting the share price. As to which way I decline to be confident. However, I have followed this company and its share price for more than twenty-five years and suspect that its nadir has been seen.

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Boohoo (LON:BOO) reports next week. The price has been buoyed by two factors. The first is that there are many holders who regard BOO as an inheritance tax avoidance vehicle and therefore advise themselves not to sell. This will probably prove very expensive.

The second is that many investors simply fail to understand Matthew Earl’s superb analysis of deeply improper and extremely expensive for shareholders behaviour by the Kamani family. These investors will regret their refusal to take on board facts.

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Finally, REA (LON:RE.) offer a trading update this morning. There is no mention of a rights issue. However, the tone, although cautious, is tolerably confident as to the CPO price. I last week bought another 100,000 REA prefs (LON:RE.B) at 59p. There are now dividend arrears of the order of 13.5p. And the yield at 60p is 15%. This is ideal for slotting into ISAs.