Evil Diaries: Don’t be browned off, get on Brown

N Brown (BWNG) reported on Wednesday last. And very good results they were. It has come right through lockdown and is clearly on an upward trend. Tangible net asset value of at least double the current share price of 32p is far more attractive than anything offered by, say, BooHoo (BOO) and the directors have announced that a dividend will be considered next year. That seems very cautious to me.

But BWNG is controlled by an alliance of Alliances and is therefore bid proof. So faites vos jeux.

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My two London-based grandsons attend a very good infants school, John Betts, in Hammersmith. Such a location means that there are many commercially successful parents in attendance. Last night perhaps 100 parents attended an auction held at the school and raised £35,000 (apparently this is necessary for work on the roof). Which, on top of the many other similar engagements in the course of a school year, seems fairly respectable to me.

The problem for these parents is that stepping up to boarding secondary education is a commitment of the order of £40,000 p.a. per pupil where the state does not make any contribution. This state of affairs, hardly new, seems foolish to me and the result of decades of blather from left-leaning politicians which cause further expense for the State. It must be possible to establish a sliding scale of assistance to allow parents to pay, say, £20,000 p.a. per child and look to the State to make up the difference.

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Finally, I am inclined to bet that The Hut Group (THG) does not receive a bid from a Candy or, indeed, anybody else.