When well over 100 plcs report results in a single week they present a good picture of the state of British business. And the canvas painted is one of cash-rich companies eager to hand out dividends.
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Who gains when share dealings are suspended? Not the shareholders if they cannot sell. And not the shareholders if the company calls off bid talks rather than suffer a suspension. Finally, the listing authorities have realised the folly of demanding a halt to trading.
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The £2bn rights issue by Resolution Limited (LON:RSL) cuts the cost of the capital raising – but only by transferring much of the risk onto the life assurance company’s existing owners. It is not as revolutionary as the commentators say: instead of protecting investors from the risk of a flop, it is existing shareholders undertaking the underwriting.
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The plan by Home Retail Group (LON:HOME) – the Argos and Homebase retailer – to buy-in £150m of its own shares would have been better timed 18 months ago when they would have cost half the current price. Companies have an appalling record of mis-timing buy-backs but expect to see many more of them this year.
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Like F1 “fans” waiting for a car crash, international investors are watching to see who loses its AAA credit rating first – the United Kingdom or United States. Both countries have huge budget deficits and high debt: so which will be stripped of its top rating, or will both be downgraded?
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If university students and lecturers are really the brightest in the land they would know why they are being told to trim academic budgets. Instead they have suspended their natural animosity to unite in protest against the government.
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As the UK economy’s return to growth was slower and lower than expected, should we prepare for a return to recession? That could be the second dip of a W-shaped curve - but it might even stem from a revision of the figure that seemingly ended the slump.
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There has been a stream of stock markets for small companies over the past three decades, but with the latest, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), in decline, is it time for another go at this problem?
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Home Information Packs – Hips – were introduced as the housing market turned down, but it would be wrong to blame them for the house price slump. And it would be equally wrong for the Conservative Party to scrap them just because they were a Labour idea.
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Criticising what regional development agencies do is easy but doing without the RDAs may still be hard. The Conservatives are pledged to axing the state agencies but should their powers be passed up to central government or passed down to an even more local level?
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