Company News

Silverdell tips and a meeting for shareholders

It was good to see Investors Chronicle giving the honest background to their worst tip of 2013 in their latest edition - namely Silverdell where shareholders have now been told their shares are worthless after being suspended for six months. They first tipped Silverdell as a "buy" in January 2011 at 7.25p and the share price subsequently doubled. They renewed the positive tip in January 2013 when the price was 17p and the p/e was 8 with gearing at 29 per ...

A Christmas present for the kids, and goodwill from Avocet directors

The Government has announced that it will allow Child Trust Funds to be transferred to Junior ISAs. The investment returns and charges on Child Trust Funds compare poorly with those available in ISAs so this is a welcome move. The only reservation is that it may not be possible to implement this until April 2015.Avocet Mining, a gold mining and exploration company, have also got into the spirit of the season by announcing that the fees paid to the Chairman and ...

Whitewash at British Smaller Companies VCT

British Smaller Companies VCT has called a General Meeting to approve resolutions to rectify past accounting errors that resulted in technically illegal payments of dividends and share buy-backs back in 2006-2008. In essence the company did not have the reserves required. So these "whitewash" resolutions as they are called ask shareholders to waive any claims against the directors for these errors, and claims against shareholders who received the dividends when they should not have. This follows similar whitewash resolutions that were ...

BAE Systems – Typhoon deal shot down, and credit extended

There was bad news from BAE Systems yesterday - issued after close of trading which is always a negative sign. Firstly the prospective deal to sell Typhoons to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is apparently a dead duck. That's perhaps not altogether surprising. But the worse news was that the pricing of a sale of the same planes to Saudi Arabia under the Salam contract has still not yet been agreed. The announcement says the parties are "actively engaged" but a "definitive ...

B&B Finance Director fined

Christopher Willford, the Finance Director of Bradford & Bingley in 2008, has been fined £30,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for "failing to provide the board with up-to-date information about B&B's financial position" ahead of the right issue in May of that year. The FCA state that Mr Willford "failed to identify and investigate potentially material risks, or alert the board, at a crucial time for the firm. Bad mortgage debts, arrears and repossessions had all risen while the net interest ...

Hibu, a most peculiar EGM, and RBS

In a previous blog post on the 28th Nov I discussed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the "unacceptable face of banking". It mentioned the case of HIBU, where RBS was one of the lenders, which had just been put into administration thereby apparently thwarting the calling of a General Meeting (EGM) by shareholders and the appointment of new directors. This was similar to the case of Torex retail some years before. In fact the HIBU EGM did actually take place but ...

How many corporate jets does Tesco need?

How many corporate jets does Tesco need? Four is the answer apparently. Every little helps (sic) as is their motto no doubt. The cost of these aircraft has actually risen in recent years and the expenditure on them was £8.9m last year. In addition the company has established a new "corporate" office in the West End of London for meetings rather than have directors travel to Cheshunt (that's just north of London for those who don't know). One has to ask whether they have ...

RBS, Hibu and the unacceptable face of banking

There have been extensive media comments lately on the activities of the Royal Bank of Scotland in lending to smaller businesses, and what they did when those businesses got into financial difficulties. The articles printed focussed on two reports on the activities of RBS - a report commissioned by the bank by Sir Andrew Large, and one by Lawrence Tomlinson* who acts as a consultant to the BIS Department. Both reports, but particularly the latter one, were quite damning about the ...

Pan African Resources AGM Report – a minor victory for shareholders on buy-backs

Pan African Resources is a South African gold mining company, but they are registered in the UK and hence hold their AGMs in London. This year it was at 10.00 am on the 22nd November in the City of London despite shareholders complaining about the 10.00 am start time last year. A full report is here, but here are some of the noteworthy points. Only the Chairman Keith Spencer was present from the directors, and he said the main reason for absence ...

Netcall AGM Report – it was not crowded!

There was no crowd at the Netcall Annual General Meeting today – indeed only me for the meeting, other than the directors and the corporate folks, which was over in about 15 minutes. There would have been a second person but it seems he was in reception and was not told the meeting had started.  A tip for attendees at AGMs – the meeting almost always start on time so if you have not been invited into the room by the ...