Ian Pollard – Pop Down To The Amazon, Will You, Pet

Tesco plc TSCO The competition and Markets Authority has given its blessing, or unconditional final clearance, as they say in the city, to Tesco’s proposed merger with Booker Group. Completion of the merger is expected in March after shareholders meetings in February. I can’t help thinking that Tesco will rue the day when management decided […]
Koovs Forced to Cut Marketing Spend for 2018

Koovs plc KOOV had a miserable time in the half year to the 30th September, with flat sales and a slight fall in group revenue, impacted by various woes, such as demonitisation, a new Goods & Services tax and high discounting. Operating costs did fall by 9% helping to reduce the loss for the half […]
Ian Pollard – Earthport Forced To Dive Deep Into The Jargon Drawer

Earthport EPO like so many companies faced with unexpected problems, management feels forced to dive deep into the jargon drawer in the false belief that if it can express itself in phraseology which only they and a few other of the initiated can understand, readers will be convinced that it must be doing a good […]
Andrew Hore – Quoted Micro 18 December 2017

NEX EXCHANGE Wine and beer maker Chapel Down Group (CDGP) has raised £18.53m at 50p a share and could raise up to £1.47m more via a one-for-35 open offer at the same share price. The latest acceptance date is 5 January. Chapel Down will invest in an additional 500 acres of vineyard land and more […]
Ian Pollard – Sports Direct Hit By UK High Street Woes

Sports Direct Intl SPD Mike Ashley claims a spectacular trading performance during the half year to the 29th October which is hardly justified by the reality of the situation, namely a fall of 1% in UK sports retail revenue or 1.2% on a like for like basis. So, he limits his claim to the trading […]
Ken Baksh – UK and US financials a hot sector for 2018?

by Ken Baksh Ken has over 35 years of investment management experience, working for two major City institutions between 1976 and 2002. Since then he has been engaged as a self-employed investment consultant. He has worked with investment trusts, unit trusts, pension funds, charities, Life Fund,hedge fund and private clients. Individual asset managed have included direct […]
Andrew Hore – Quoted Micro 11 December 2017

NEX EXCHANGE First Sentinel (FSEN) has bought a 80% stake in Perennial Enterprises in Australia in an all share deal. Perennial is a profitable debtor finance business and it is purchasing A$5m of invoices each month. Shane Perry of Perennial will join the First Sentinel board. Primorus Investments (PRIM) has sold its investment in Gold […]
Ken Baksh – January 2018 Investment Review

by Ken Baksh Ken has over 35 years of investment management experience, working for two major City institutions between 1976 and 2002. Since then he has been engaged as a self-employed investment consultant. He has worked with investment trusts, unit trusts, pension funds, charities, Life Fund,hedge fund and private clients. Individual asset managed have included direct […]
Ian Pollard – National Express Gearing Up For A Strong Christmas

National Express NEX has continued to see a good trading performance across all its divisions in October and November. In both the US and Spain early Christmas trading has been strong and advanced sales are higher then last year. Two small acqisitions have been completed, one in he states with 204 buses and the second […]
Andrew Hore – Quoted Micro 4 December 2017

NEX EXCHANGE VI Mining is planning to join NEX this month. The Peru-focused miner is acquiring two gold mining assets in tandem with the flotation. VI will raise up to £10m in cash at 500p a share and issue a further £10m worth of shares as part of the initial payment, along with some of […]