Mitie’s highwire act

Mitie (LON:MTO) continues its highwire act even though the wire has been seriously lowered. This business has gone wrong and it is unlikely that Phil Bentley can turn it round. It is amazing that the banks have let the dividend be paid at all.

Half time net assets are disclosed as £223m but intangibles remain at £430m. And, given the condition of this business, one is entitled to wonder at this holding value – remember that these are unaudited figures.

In my opinion, still a raving sell above 150p.

*****

Seemingly, the only broadsheet covering the Eclipse 35 affair is The Times. Here perhaps 800 taxpayers have been inveigled into a taxation avoidance scheme which has been ruled void by the Courts. The result is that around 85% of these hopefuls may go bankrupt where there have already been suicides.


HMRC’s Dave Hartnett proffered the view that this was a scheme for scumbags which categorisation seems to me to be fairly similar to Hillary Clinton’s description of Trump supporters as deplorables. After all, if a taxpayer makes, say, £1m subject to income tax at 40% why should he not arrange his affairs to avoid this charge – I remind younger readers that there is full judicial authority to allow this. And there is the rub: these schemes are sold by scumbags who are paid hidden commissions to talk sheer baloney.

*****

Saturday’s Daily Mail wondered aloud whether the bond market could become so fearful that there is no bid for bonds and concluded that it cannot. The truth however is that it can: many years ago I read that a partner in Cazenove found that he could not get a bid in £15,000 worth of 2.5% Consols in 1932. His young colleague who learnt of this news was so discombobulated that he committed suicide. He must have been a sensitive soul.