Status change

Mitie (LON:MTO) published their full year results to 31st March 2017 this morning. They are really bad and there is little sign that things will get better in the short term and, quite possibly, in the longer term. That makes them a sell in my book at 265p which is up 18p on the day. Goodness knows why.

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I went over the Molins (LON:MLIN) figures again. I reckon that post last Thursday’s disposal tnav is boosted to £28m at least and cash is of the order of £25m. (I can’t be sure as to this figure since losses/profits since the last balance sheet, for 31st December 2016, are not disclosed. However, that is 125p per share.) But, that noted, it looks as if the company as a whole has done well so far in calendar 2017. In short, MLIN is solvent – and how!

Further, tnav is 142p and the packaging machinery business is in for free (there are only 20m shares). Family Cawkwell own 300,000+ MLIN. But I cannot see why these shares should be under 150p. And, Dear Reader, you will share that view should you read the CEO’s statement as to prospects for MLIN post the tobacco machinery disposal (i.e. now). Every now and then a company undergoes a status change. This is one such.

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Culinary review: For many years I used to lunch with Jim Slater from time to time – at, say, The Travellers, Aspinalls or, sometimes Brooks’s. As was inevitable, conversation occasionally drifted on to scrambled eggs and Jim assured me that the Ritz, where he was a constant resident, knew their business. I did not argue since I content myself with the fact that my wife does the best scrambled eggs in the free world.  What goes on at home can surprise.


It is in this vein that I disclose that Bachelor’s Cup-a-Soup can be surprisingly good. You will need to season with salt and pepper. I had thought packet soup virtually proledom made real. But I am wrong. Reports please and, while you are about it, advice on where to get perfect hot and sour soup. There must be Chinese readers who can guide a sad old man. I think the best h and s soup I have ever had was in Jimmy’s Kitchen in Hong Kong in 1984. And it used to appeal somewhere in Bayswater. It is here that the trail has gone cold.