1579 days ago
Firstly I hope you all have a good New Year’s Eve and wish you all, even NoGold and Roger Lawson, the best of luck for 2020. In the podcast I look at BigDish (DISH), Bidstack (BIDS) and Bango (BGO).
4109 days ago
Russian Oil Producer Ruspetro (RPO) has announced a partial debt for equity swap and refinancing of its remaining debts. This is good news. However before those who ignored my advice to sell at 83.5p on 4th January after an almost comical well after hours profits warning start to celebrate this company still faces serious issues. The shares have bounced back to 49.5p but while they are no longer a short I would still regard them as one to avoid.
The profits warning was release, as you may remember at 6.30 PM on the Friday of New Year week when nobody was meant to be noticing. Coming less than six weeks after an upbeat trading statement it left the management team with zero credibility and it will take an awfully long time for that to change. I flagged at the time that the company had serious balance sheet and ( lack of ) free cashflow issues and the latest announcement partially solves that.
4127 days ago
Yesterday Greggs (GRG), the leading bakery retailer in the UK with more than 1,670 retail outlets, released an update on trading for the Christmas and New Year period (5 weeks ended 5th January 2013) and for its 2012 financial year (52 weeks ended 29th December 2012). This included that the company anticipates that it “will report full year results broadly in line with expectations when we make our preliminary announcement on 13 March 2013”. However there were caveats and with concerns about the UK economy and consumer spending – particularly on the high street, the following is my take on the current outlook for this company…
4136 days ago
How many of my 2012 Resolutions did I keep? Not as many as I would have wished. Naturally I shall try to resolve to quit smoking, shed the Christmas pounds, be a better father & son, etc. All the sort of stuff that a Miss World contestant would understand. That is the personal stuff. The business stuff? Well naturally I shall try to ensure that invoices are issued on time and chased correctly, that we look at getting our suppliers to requote, etc,etc. All the sort of things any SME should be doing anyway but which we sort of never quite keep up on top of.
There are a few specific business plans I have: At Real Man Pizza there is a children’s menu to introduce, an expanded special student scheme, the website revamp etc. I am hopeful all will be in place by January 8th. But these are not really resolutions. And so I offer up three:
4137 days ago
It is New Year’s Eve and my FIFTH share tip of the year ( of SEVEN) is now live ( here).
There are 2 more tips of the year 2013 to come
On 30th December my FOURTH share tip of the year ( of SEVEN) went live ( here).
On 29th December my 3rd share tip of the year ( of SEVEN) went live ( here).
On 28th December I published my second share tip of the year ( here).
The day before I published my first share tip of the year ( here).
On Boxing Day I published my macro-economic assumptions for 2013.
The next three tips will be published in various places. This article will be updated as each goes live with a link. And I shall send out a twitter alert. That is apart from the 7th tip of the year which will be the first tip published on my new venture with ADVFN – Onefreesharetip.com – it will go out at 9 AM on the 2nd of January.
The only way to receive that tip in your email is to register HERE at OneFreesharetip.com .
And if you do, you will then get one free share tip each and every working day from an all star panel of around 20 share tipsters and commentators.
So you might as well join up anyway. .
Go on, you know it makes senes
4137 days ago
And so I found myself in the grim North this morning and being just down the road from Grantham thought that I would pay a visit to the birthplace of Britain’s greatest Prime Minister. I cannot say that I see much to take me back to Grantham. Baroness Thatcher was born above the corner store owned by her father Alderman Roberts. It is a couple of hundred yards away from the town centre but not on the posher side.
These days the store sells holistic nonsense as you can see in the photo below. What strikes me is just how small it is. Thatcher was a leader born in truly humble surroundings. A small room, above a small shop, in a “secondary” part of a small town. When she suggested that others pull themselves up by their bootstraps she knew what that meant as that is exactly what she (and I imagine her father) did themselves. Her background made her the great leader she was. Just like Call Me Dave’s background made him, er……
The fact that the person who not only became our first female PM but was without doubt the dominant figure post WW2 in British Politics was born in this town is almost unmentioned. That is to the eternal shame of whichever tossers are in charge of the town. All one can see
